ThatGuyWithALongUsername

It's kind of interesting that all 3 rocky planets in our solar systems' optimistic habitable zone (Venus is kinda on the edge, but whatever) are believed to have been earthlike at one point, but different things led to only one of them remaining that way. It's both good news (earthlike conditions are common) and bad news (but can only be sustained under apparently narrow circumstances- I mean, these are planets, there are a LOT of variables, things will turn out differently) for the search for habitable exoplanets. Anyway, clearly what happened here is the Venusians didn't heed their scientists' warnings about climate change (joking, of course... though seriously people, come on). EDIT: and, uhhh... the resurfacing event was caused by... uh... didn't think this through I guess.

I was under the impression that both Mk1 and Mk2 were for higher alt / reentry testing, and we know from FAA documents that this is what Mk1 is for, but SpaceX hasn't exactly been known for sticking to a strict plan with this thing so far, has it? Guess we'll get updated with the presentation in a week, and then see for sure when these actually fly...

Gotta love a good Elon tweetstorm... Wonder what the cold gas thrusters are using as fuel? Are they using gaseous CH4 or N2? Apparently, both are available on Mars- the atmosphere is about 2% N2. But is that enough?

Most surprising thing here is the header tanks will be in the upper half, on top of the fuel tanks instead of inside them. Hope that doesn't impact cargo volume that much... Also, how many fins and legs are we getting exactly? Still not clear...

Screen isn't real though.

That would be what those gap-cover-thingies would be for, then! I like this idea, it's completely crazy. We're talking SpaceX, so crazy is good! So, 4 main options here: 2 fins, actuate in entirety, whole fins already mounted. 2 wings, tips articulate only. 2 wings, tips and body both articulate separately, so the hinge gap thing is still explained. This... madness. Awesome madness.

*Like* That would certainly explain Elon's mysterious "dragon wings" tweet... and look really cool! I mean, not 100% sure there are fins on the end like this, but it would make sense. The jokes about Starship slowly evolving into the Shuttle will only get worse from here, though... lol Stream editing. Just some picture-in-picture fun.

They just put the top bit of the nosecone onto that one replacement nosecone ring! On its own maybe that isn't as exciting as the fins, but the fact that this is all happening on the SAME DAY is incredible- they are really picking up pace!

Good point. *like*

Well... IIRC Elon *did* say it had changed again. And it doesn't really look like there's landing gear on them, combined with Elon saying certain structures were "landing leg mounts" on Twitter makes me think that yeah, they're separate again. IMO it looks kinda like a blend between the 2017 BFR and the 2018/19 Starship. I wonder if there are still three fins, or if they've gone back to 2 (after all, didn't Elon say the third one was really just a landing leg?) Did they right-click the symmetry button?

GUYS. GUYS. FIN!!!!! (So dang excited I had to plug my own twitter! Makes sense, right?)

I'm not sure there's a limit to the heaviest theoretically possible SSTO, just keep scaling up until you accidentally have a space elevator I guess? Not sure what this post is trying to say?

Agreed, really. But that doesn't make it any less insane to think about! My burning question is whether or not they'll actually get the fins and legs on there?

Can't say I'm surprised or that multiple people didn't see this coming... it's too much of a regulatory hassle to deal with for just testing, and if they still want to launch the full SS/SH stack from there, then yeah, the village pretty much couldn't be inhabited for safety reasons. Also also also it looks like I might be wrong and the 2 tweets were actually talking about different objects, confirming the landing legs ARE separate and not vice versa. So, oops. Also WOAH does that mean they expect to get the top bulkhead installed and the two halves put together in a WEEK?!

Also also: Presumably referring to the same object, confirming that the legs and fins are still the same thing in the latest design. That's important since he's said the design of the fins/legs *has* changed again. BUT... there are at least 5 if these mounts in the picture... maybe the 2 canards in the front use the same mounts?

Dangit some of these posts are helpful information and some of it is funny and I keep trying to like them, going as far as tapping where the button should be on mobile...

Ah, KSP... your wonders never cease...

Yeah, you're partially right, I didn't read through the list fully I guess. Specifically I misread #2 as a super fast rotating body (which is fine) and I seemed to have completely missed #5-8, and I have to agree with your complaints for #5 and #8 makes... no sense. The rest of this list is still fine though, still don't agree with "no." 100% agree, in fact I think the variety of surfaces of planets is seriously underrated, BUT a bunch of ravines still makes a lot of sense to me. Nobody said the planet had to be nothing but ravines, just that there would be a lot of them. I know this isn't exactly what they are, but I was thinking of Europa.

Icliie these ideas, except for maybe 1 and 10 which I'm not really sure would work or make sense, but the others are great! Perfectly realistic, too. Wow, uh, that's kind of blunt and vague?

Oh man, I remember the whole Gas Planet 2 (and 3) idea. Still think that should have been in the game. I even tried making a mod of it (well aware that there were a gajillion other mods for it) but without really having any idea what I was doing I never really got anywhere. Oddly enough, in-game I've only done a couple of interplanetary missions, just because- even without visiting them- the rest of the stock system was just too well-known, I guess. The devs said they're going to leave the basic layout of the Kerbolar system untouched, and it isn't really clear if adding to it would count as changing it, but I hope they do add to it.

First off, I'm sure the game will display their name as something, so probably not community made... second off, they've only said "multiple" other star systems (unless I missed something), so how do we know there's only 2?

I spent pretty much ALL DAY (other than work, etc.) struggling to make this work. This was actually my first time really messing with the KAL-1000 in Breaking Ground. I shouted "YES!" when it finally worked the first time.

Well... at least it was going a bit slower then Beresheet was... I don't think they've officially said anything as they're waiting on data, but Vikram's fate seems all too obvious at this point...

Someone got fired, I'm guessing

This thread sounds familiar. Just sayin'...