ChrisSpace

Hey, you remember when I said this about inertially confined fusion engines? Well, I will admit I did not do my research long enough, it turns out there are several fusion engines, both inertially and magnetically confined, that have this characteristic. So perhaps the supernova can exchange thrust for isp as well:D Also, I had some more ideas for engines and their gameplay niches (most of these ideas came from my friends actually, and I tried really hard to limit the number of posted ideas to unique ones only): TRINITY nuclear pulse propulsion unit mass: 200t thrust: 2,220kN isp (vac): 2000s fuel: nukeunits gameplay niche: the first orion nuclear propulsion system. TWR is only just a little bit above 1, so this is not for lifting off kerbin. also, the international kerbin environmental protection organization (IKEPO) would not be very pleased. SPRAYER open-cycle gas-core nuclear thermal rocket mass: 200t thrust: 3500kN isp (vac): 3600s fuel: liquidfuel gameplay niche: a high-thrust high-isp nuclear engine with radioactive exhaust ATR Solid-core antimatter thermal rocket mass: 5t thrust: 440kN isp (vac): 1100s fuel: antimatter and liquidfuel gameplay niche: a step up from the LV-N nuclear engine IVY MIKE nuclear pulse propulsion unit mass: 1700t thrust: 80,000kN isp (vac): 4000s fuel: nukeunits gameplay niche: a mid-sized nuclear pulse propulsion system, quite massive and powerful FLARE IC-fusion engine mass: 4t thrust: 80kN isp (vac): 15,200s fuel: fusionpellets gameplay niche: a small fusion engine for small spacecraft FREEDOM closed-cycle gas-core nuclear thermal rocket mass: 40t thrust: 4000kN isp (vac): 3000s fuel: liquidfuel gameplay niche: very heavy high-efficiency payload lifting KITE photon sail mass: 16t thrust: 0.185kN, when at kerbin's distance from kerbol photon sail dimensions: 4km x 4km x 300nm gameplay niche: solar photon sail. requires no propellant. works best close to kerbol.

I have seen this sort of argument many times, mostly relating to humans not being animals, but sometimes things like: 'bananas aren't fruit, they are bananas!' Also, the three countries that won the war were America, The United States and the USA.

2/10 That would be a sad ending to the Apollo program America stay neutral with Germany during WW2 - Japan is defeated earlier as America can focus on it more - Germany takes all of Europe and the USSR - Cold war happens with Germany instead of the USSR - Germany collapses into several democratic nations - All of Asia becomes pro-American puppet states - The Korean war, the Vietnam war and several others don't exist Pros: Less wars in the asia-pacific region, China never turns to communism, America still lands on the moon racing Germany Cons: no recognizable European countries exist anymore, Possibility of nuclear exchange between the two superpowers

Here are some ideas I had: Greek names: Ares, Athens etc 'New' city names: New NYC, New LA, New washington, New New deli, New Mumbai, New Beijing, New shanghai, New Moscow, New London, New Berlin, New New england 'New' country names: New America, New Poland (lol), New China, New india, New Russia, New DPRK, New UK, New Sweden Coorporate sponsor names: McColony, Toshibaland, Microspace, Appleville, Google GlassDome, Exxon Mobil Town, SpaceXia Famous people names: Elonland, Gatestown, Obamia, Pewdie-colo-nie Geographic names: Valles Marineris, Olympus mons, Gale colony, Hellas basin

Hmm... I will definitely look at this when it is further into development. How is it's development cycle, by the way? Is it like KSP, where they just keep pumping out updates, or is it like Orbiter, where a new version comes out every 5 years or so?

Don't worry, it will become more original as time goes on, this is more of a 'proof-of-concept'. And I must also warn that since school has started, KSP ep2 is probably several weeks away.

'we don't need petrol, my family drives a 4WD' because 4WD's are wind powered, as everyone knows.

I will admit that my 1-2 tons figure was a random estimate. Anyways, how do these figures compare with what LBSP is planning?

I was talking about this mod with my friend the other day and he actually said it should merge with prokjet's nuclear engines mod lol:D. But seriously, this is never going to happen, right?

One of the F1 engines fails to pump fuel through correctly, leading to the ignition of the liquid kerosene tanks, shortly followed by an aerial explosion with the force of a small nuclear detonation, and the Kennedy Space Center is damaged to the point of being unusable I reveal my real name, what could possibly go wrong?

I have seen this one many times, and it never gets old XD Also, some things I remember from my old school: 'meteors blow a permanent hole in the atmosphere, like they do in the ground' 'satellites are clearly fake because the ones they show in orbit (the actual satellite with the antennas and solar panels) look completely different when they launch (he thought the launch vehicle was the same thing) 'Gravity does not exist, as I will show you in this experiment *grabs a sheet of paper and a balloon* Gravity states that objects will pull relatively lighter objects towards it *holds paper just under the surface of the balloon* This paper is relatively much lighter than this balloon, so why isn't the balloon pulling the paper towards it?'

What, so we are just going to look at a blip on a screen, or a number getting higher and higher, instead of actually recording the view from up there? A camera would make the final result much more pleasing and would give more of a sense of accomplishment. And space-grade cameras are not even that expensive or massive. You do not seem to understand how heavy our suborbital rocket will have to be. even reaching space requires 2-3km/s of Dv, and for comparison the Dv required for orbit is 9km/s, so this is no estes firework rocket here. We are talking about something weighing around 1-2 metric tons if we are launching it from a balloon, and more if we are launching it from the ground. If we go for a balloon launch, granted, the rocket itself would be smaller, however the balloon would need to carry enough helium to produce enough buoyancy to lift our two-ton rocket, so the final vehicle would actually be larger, and certainly more complex. We will need to keep a line of sight with ground control to maintain communications, plus we don't want our rocket reentering over, and crashing into, a populated area.

Your analogy is quite off. firstly, the poor kid is gaining wealth and power very fast, and within a few decades will rival the US and China. And the current American regime has little to no interest in space exploration, so the 'newest phone' thing is waaay off.

Minecraft is only a mere 64,000 by 64,000 kilometres, so small it could fit within the orbit of minmus. KSP is a good contender, and it's 'box' technically never ends, although at some point the altitude meter flips back to metres (m) Space Engine has a visible boundary where the galaxies stop generating, however one can fly beyond that barrier into the blackness, and continue on forever Orbiter, like KSP and Space Engine, also has an infinite 'box', however there is nothing new beyond Neptune (or pluto/eris/sedna if you have mods installed) Universe Sandbox is also technically infinite. So, yes, there are infinitely sized games, however in terms of 'distance to the furthest thing', Space Engine is the undisputed winner

Inertial Confined Orbital Neutraliser BACON

Wait, are we not even adding a camera? And could the high winds in the upper atmosphere be handled by 'simple stabilizing tailfins', as you are implying? Firstly, any suborbital 'sugar rocket' will need lots of propellant for even a tiny payload, so either way the final rocket will be quite heavy. And, again, you don't seem to understand how strong the wind can be at these altitudes. This, combined with the fact the balloon will naturally take a long time to reach launch altitude, means it could drift very far. I'm talking several dozens of kilometers, not just a few. As for the cost, well, I actually do not know what would be cheaper, but I still suspect a larger rocket would be cheaper than a secondary launch stage with completely different engineering requirements. Still, I am starting to like the balloon idea, I just don't know if it will be worth the time/effort/money needed to design and build it.

... which had parts attached to every one of your spacecrafts, so you can no longer use them or even open them up in the VAB/SPH. I make a long-ish blog post about which countries are likely to perform manned interplanetary missions, other than wasting half an hour of my time, what could possibly go wrong?

No, I meant, feedback on my video.

Unlike the United States, India actually cares about space exploration, so they will eventually put more effort into it than the US. How and why do you think the US would try to 'stop' them. Remember, India and America are currently allies, not rivals. It is likely that NASA would take a small part in the first pre-colonization SpaceX mars missions, however almost all of the funding, planning, mission design and resources would come from SpaceX. Elon musk's companies are already making enough money to easily fund several mars expeditions.

Really?

Wait, he forgot about Soviet Russia! and the Russian empire! and ze motherland!

NASA is never likely to land humans on another planet or moon again. Not even the moon and mars will ever be reached with the amount of funding provided by the US government, and this is unlikely to ever change soon. Perhaps instead of thinking about NASA we should be looking into the possibility of someone else reaching other planets: Russia's space program might continue on to the moon, and it has already announced that it will use its old ISS modules for its own space station. They also are very experienced with long human missions in space. However any Russian interplanetary mission is unlikely due to Russia's poor economic and political situation. The European Space Agency is already planning to send a large rover to mars in a few years' time. They also are quite experienced with human space travel, despite never developing their own manned spacecraft. However, the ESA currently has no motive for interplanetary manned expeditions, or even manned lunar missions. They might help out with someone else's manned expedition, though. SpaceX is arguably our best hope for a manned interplanetary expedition. They have proven they know how to land things with chemical propulsion, they are already developing a heavy lift launch vehicle and a manned orbital spacecraft, they are already planning to drastically drop launch costs by reusing their rocket boosters, and they are already developing plans for a manned mars expedition, which they say will launch in the late 2020s. So far their mars plan has seen no unpassable obstacles, and since they are a private company, they can't be virtually shut down like NASA was just because the government doesn't think they deserve funding. Once the mars colonial transporter is up and running, it is very likely SpaceX will look outwards towards the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Titan in particular would be a very profitable target, since it has seas of methane rocket fuel. China is also a good contender for interplanetary exploration. Unlike most nations, China puts a lot of effort into it's space program, and already has a rover on the moon and a primitive manned space station in low orbit. They are also developing their own heavy launch vehicle, the long march 9, which will be even more powerful than the falcon heavy and should have it's maiden flight in 2028, if everything is on schedule. With the heavy lift capability, long term manned mission capability and growing economy it has, it is very likely China will begin its own moon and mars manned expeditions. After that, there is no reason it won't continue to the outer and inner planets. There is even the possibility China and SpaceX will have a series of interplanetary 'space races'. India is often overlooked when talking about manned space exploration, however it is a surprisingly high-potential nation in this area. India already has launched a probe into mars orbit, and plans to launch a human into space in 2016. Its economy, like China's, is growing fast, so it could easily fund a manned interplanetary programme. Seeing SpaceX and China launch manned missions to mars and other planets/moons will certainly encourage India to begin such projects. Iran and Japan have also displayed interest in manned space programmes, however they are very unlikely to succeed due to internal and foreign unrest as well as a lack of funding.

Your design would likely work for most rockets, and probably even this one, however the fuse would have to be the perfect length for a near-perfect timed staging. But I like the concept and I think this idea should be further looked into by LBSP. Your comment on not needing a flight computer, however, is illogical. How else would the rocket navigate, keep communications with ground control, handle all its cameras, etc etc etc? If we are going to use a balloon to bring the rocket up to a higher altitude, the balloon will need to: - have enough buoyancy to carry a very heavy rocket - stay balanced enough while carrying the rocket, and stay very balanced during liftoff - have navigation systems capable of keeping the balloon near the launch site - be capable of remotely lighting the rocket once a certain altitude has been reached These all look like easy tasks, but carrying the entire rocket up into the sky and then lighting it would take far more effort, time and money then making the rocket larger and launching from the ground. Just to clear up, none of this means I am doubtful or critical about this project. In fact, I am actually quite excited about LBSP. I am simply pointing out what will and won't work with the kind of time and resources LBSP has.

Oh, there is one other option I forgot to mention: Putting the kerbal inside a pocketcube. A pocketcube is basically a smaller version of a cubesat (5x5x5 cm instead of 10x10x10 cm). More details can be found at http://www.pocketqubeshop.com/

LBSP, see my earlier post on staging. Also, don't even try using a balloon.