ChrisSpace

YES YES YES YES YES I remember playing Orbiter 2010 as a young kid. It was one of the main things that drove me into space (not literally).

'Education, Healthcare and the overall wellbeing of the 99% are important. But budget surpluses are importanter.'

Sees title of thread... MEGA FACEPALM

12 750 000 000

Oh mein gott...

It can actually be checked quite easily using math. Earth has a diameter of ~12750 km, so this 'drawing' would have a scale of 1: 12 750 000 000. For simplicity let's round this up to 1: 13 billion. That means a 12km x 12km square would have a corresponding size of 156 x 156 billion kilometers. A bit big, actually.

Fun Fact: Worms eat their own solid waste.

Is that in normal SpaceEngine or is it a mod? kinda like mars without the mars.

Are you still planning to include OPM compatibility? Please?

Discovering this kind of thing today would be like the Imperial British Empire discovering nuclear fusion. Just sayin'. By 'a good nuclear reactor' i'm gonna be nice and assume you mean 200MW for a 600t spacecraft to travel at 1c, based on the VASIMR 200MW nuclear 600t spacecraft. Now we're getting somewhere. All the world's nations will invest heavily in nuclear fusion and other extremely compact energy generation, to make the most of warp propulsion. Mars is certainly explored by several nations, along with the moons of the outer planets. America tries to weaponise the device. Russia and China use it to lift large space stations off Earth's surface. SpaceX uses warp technology to make space access even cheaper. Japan, South Korea and NATO work together to build military bases on the moon. Poland can into space. Australia stays out of the arms race due to government technophobia. North Korea would claim to have created their own warp drive, but nobody would believe them. Mars One might actually become a thing. Lunar and Asteroid mining would rack up trillions of dollars. Saudi Arabia and the UAE would panic as Titanian natural gas becomes way more abundant than oil. When we do come across an inhabited planet, there are 2 possibilities: They nearly wipe us out with alien diseases, or we nearly wipe them out with our diseases. What happens next depends on how technologically advanced they are. Mining craft for asteroids could easily be built, and there is an estimated $100 million of asteroid belt minerals for every person on Earth. Not to mention the solar energy opportunities on Mercury, the seas of natural gas on Titan, or the giant calamari on Europa. It would be a very good time. Yes, it could indeed be used to launch massive space stations into orbit.

Cool story. Fun fact: 2 is the only number where n + n, n x n and n^n all have the same answer.

As far as I know there are 3 ways to bring a mineral-rich asteroid to earth: 1 - Bring it down piece by piece 2 - Put it inside a space shuttle - type cargo bay, then land that 3 - Glue lots of parachutes onto the asteroid, and give it a quick deorbit burn

I'd prevent the war on drugs before it even began. ( )

Same here. Also, from a conspiracist that seemed to get things the wrong way around... 9/11 was faked in a studio! You can clearly see the plane is only a few inches long! The Apollo program was an inside job done by the government!

Okay, so the other day I was doing stuff with my friend, and then this happened: Hey Chris, wanna see a cool trick I got off a youtube video? Me: Is this going to be like the train thing? No, no, I promise. Okay, so first question, what do you see here? A Me: Well, it looks like the letter A. I'm sorry but that's wrong. The correct answer was the color red. Me: Oh, okay. I get it now. Next question. What do you see here? A Me: Well, it must be the color blue. Wrong again. The correct answer was the letter A. Me: Wait, but you said- Next question. What do you see here? A Me: Okay, it's the letter A colored grey. Wrong again. Me: What the ****!? The correct answer was the letter A colored light black. Me: ... that's enough ...

New plan: Bring every dwarf planet in the solar system as well as all their moons into one spot, and then merge them together into one single planet, and then claim that it's too big not to be a planet.

Rosetta and philae are a hoax, we never landed on it

Fun Fact: This thread was originally only meant for interesting true facts.

My reaction: Infinity minus one, translated from German to English.

Sees name of thread... Finds it's only discussion of a simulation...

I doubt it's any new major discoveries. Probably something minor.

LEO missions are done with a currently-used rocket, perhaps one that has been modified for complete reusability The 150mT launcher will resemble the SLS, the 400mT launcher will be based off this: http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/surfaceorbit.php#seadragon Good to hear that you like my plan, although I do think it would need a lot of reworking. Overall I enjoyed this thought experiment.

I'm gonna go a bit further than a moon landing with this thought experiment. 2005 - Begin new NASA regime. 2005 onwards - Invest heavily in rocket reusability. If this is done the way SpaceX plans to do it, launch costs can go down by a factor of 10. 2008 - Elect a different president so the programme can continue. 2009 - Begin unmanned testing of a 4-crew Command pod system resembling a cross between Orion and Dragonv2 in our timeline. 2010s 2010 - Begin unmanned ISS cargo resupply missions using new Command pod system. 2011 - Perform first manned mission to LEO with 4-crew command pod. Launch MSL with a heavy focus on assessing the environment of mars for human explorers. 2012 - Begin to restart NERVA nuclear thermal propulsion programme. Also begin to research VASIMR and Ion propulsion. MSL arrives at mars. 2013 - Begin testing of Super heavy launch system capable of lifting 150mT to LEO. Begin testing of all the lunar lander's systems. 2014 - Begin regular ISS manned ferrying. Send a lander to the moon to scan for minerals. Also send a small swarm of cubesat-like probes to investigate mineral-rich asteroids. 2015 - Perform manned test of super-heavy launch system, sending a crew of 4 around the moon Apollo-8 style. Get results back from probe swarm and immediately fast-track developing spacecraft for asteroid mining. 2016 - Unmanned test of the lunar lander in LEO. Fast-track nuclear fusion research so the moon's He-3 can be exploited. Finalize design for manned mission to Mars using NERVA propulsion. 2017 - First manned landing on the moon. 4 astronauts spend 7 days on the lunar surface. Begin launching spacecraft to mine mineral-rich Asteroids. 2018 - Second manned mission to the moon. Begin unmanned lunar mining. Launch first module of lunar outpost, landing in an area of overlapping He-3 and Platinum deposits. 2019 - Launch Third mission to the moon. Launch several more outpost modules, including a greenhouse and ISRU unit. Begin making heaps of money off asteroid mining. Politicians are pleased because of this. 2020s 2020 - Launch fourth mission to the moon. Finish lunar outpost. Launch first module of mars spacecraft ARES-1. Launch another large rover at mars to find the best spot for a manned landing. 2021 - Launch several more modules of ARES-1. New rover arrives at Mars. Finish nuclear fusion research programme and begin to shuttle He-3 to Earth. 2022 - Finish buiding and then launch ARES-1, carrying 6 astronauts, 3 americans and 3 non-americans. Make even more money from He-3 in addition to asteroid minerals. 2023 - ARES-1 lands on mars. Begin testing of new 400mT space launch vehicle. Test new high-power fusion-powered VASIMR system on the ISS, boosting it into a higher orbit. 2024 - ARES-1 returns to Earth. ARES-2 begins construction using more advanced systems and a fusion-powered VASIMR. Announce plans to build self-sufficient colonies on the moon and Mars. 2025 - Begin regular shuttling of crews to and from the lunar outpost. Build new gigantic space station in geostationary orbit using 400mT launch vehicle. Launch huge telescope to search for Earth-like planets around nearby stars. 2026 - ARES-2 leaves Earth, carrying 12 astronauts this time. Begin using lunar regolith to construct first Dome Colony on the moon. 2027 - ARES-2 land on Mars. Not sure where to go from here.