Kekkie

Granted: They do. You get sucked in by quicksand walking on them. I wish I could walk on Venus without a suit.

"This ain't the kind of place to raise your kids."

Because the commander is required to be Russian? "A citizen-cosmonaut of the Russian Federation shall be appointed Commander of the crew of a manned space object." Nowhere in this law does it say that a Soyuz qualifies as a "manned space object" if another country outside Russia's jurisdiction is operating it. P.S. Is there a separate space law thread to discuss this? Don't want to overly distract.

As long as we're daydreaming, Martian orbit. Delta v for Mars transfer is only slightly more than Earth escape velocity from the ISS's altitude. Attach an ion tug with Starlink's engines (Dragon XL-derived, like the deorbit vehicle?) Dry mass 10 tons, so the total mass of the ISS is 460 tons on docking. As the thrusters have ~2500s ISP, and accounting for gravity losses, total propellant mass would probably be around 100t assuming an approximate delta v of 5 km/s (no idea if this approximation works). All you'd need would be one Starship launch and cargo deployment, an ion propelled tug which doesn't exist yet, a magical mass ratio of 10 for this vehicle, and multi-megawatt power and upgrades to the ISS's electrical system to avoid the thing taking 25 years to move!

Done!

Inspired by this thread: and @Lisias's comment therein. The challenge: 1. Download HabTech2, Tantares, their dependencies and the associated craft files for the ISS: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/133501-112x-bg-habtech2-stockalike-iss-parts-100-the-final-update/ 2. Open the craft file for the ISS's 2023 version from HabTech2. Hyperedit (or assemble, if you really want to) the various modules into either of the following orbits, depending on if you wish to use Realism Overhaul or not: STOCK: SMA 105km, eccentricity <0.05, inclination 51 +/- 2 degrees. RSS/RO: Perigee 413 +/- 1km, apogee 422 +/- 1km, inclination 51.6 +/- 0.2 degrees. 3. Design and launch a vehicle that successfully lands the ISS in the South Pacific Ocean. In stock, this is the ocean south of the KSC - I couldn't find any specific coordinates. In RSS, this is near Point Nemo (49 +/- 5 degrees S, 123 +/- 5 degrees W). A successful landing is defined as one where no major module of the ISS is destroyed (solar panels and/or radiators can break) and, if the landing is attempted crewed, where all Kerbals survive safely. If solar panels/radiators do survive, this adds extra cool points (qualitative judging will apply for now, however input on a scoring system would be appreciated). Feedback is appreciated. Thank you.

Chang'e 6, a lunar sample return mission targeting Apollo basin on the lunar far side, has launched. https://spacenews.com/china-launches-change-6-mission-to-collect-first-samples-from-the-moons-far-side/

This may be of interest to Mac users wanting to use Parallax: https://rosenzweig.io/blog/conformant-gl46-on-the-m1.html

Newest update says T-40 hours as of 9pm ET to propellant exhaustion, so probably around midday-afternoon Wednesday the mission ends. *sigh* I was really hoping for a US Moon landing. We still have Intuitive Machines I guess.

I am excited to build on a larger scale than ever before with new procedural parts and be able to go longer distances (not just in the stock game and its implementation of interstellar travel, but also relating to the greatly increased modding capability of KSP2.)

Well, I have an update: this solution does not appear to work properly. The "build_external.sh" file does not open even after I follow the install instructions. Sorry Mac users, but just thought you guys might want the PSA. On the other hand, this might be me being technically inept, so don't take this as word of god.

@Gameslinx Do you have any ideas about if using this to enable OpenGL and therefore Parallax would work on Mac? No pressure, just wondering.

Hi @sturmhauke & @Artienia, I had a question about completing this challenge with RSS/RO. I know that, for example with @Entropian, you have allowed participants to use other planet packs, but as far as I am aware Realism Overhaul has never been covered. Since it affects aerodynamics, heating, part statistics, and a wide variety of relevant parameters for this challenge, do you have any strong opinions on using it for this? Thank you for your time. Best, Kekkie

Hi people, A while back, I designed the Hail Mary ship from the book of the same name (with the help of @Hyperspace Industries and @Janus92, to name a few collaborators.) I then started working on a mission report to showcase the recreated flight of that ship. I am still working on that project, but in the process I was distracted by a new season of the alternate history show For All Mankind, currently on Apple TV. The premise is essentially that the Soviets' lead designer during the Space Race, Sergei Korolev, does not die during a surgical operation in 1966 and as a result leads their space program to a successful Moon landing ahead of the Americans. As a result, space development on both sides is radically accelerated and the race does not end. Among other things, this indirectly allows for the formation of private space companies and a space hotel, Polaris, is placed in LEO and commissioned in 1992... Here is my recreation of that hotel, based on schematics provided by the show's creators and appearances of the hotel in the first episode. Disclaimer: I do not own any of these schematics. https://imgur.com/a/wgNC28L I hope you all enjoy. Any feedback and suggestions for improvements are welcome!

How exactly did this happen? You said that they were melted by tidal interactions with Kerbin but then how did they refreeze? Tidal forces are still acting on Minmus while it is in orbit, no?

Wernher von Kerman screamed at the gigantic pile of moar boosters that went off course and started flying at him. However, before he could get away, his vocal cords gave out from the effort and he wasn't able to call for help. The boosters crashed into and killed him. Leroy Kerman - walking on Pluto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_phasing This sounds like what you are doing - transferring to a more elliptical orbit so that you won't meet the target body, but adjusted so that when you come back around after an orbit or two, you can intercept.

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What about images? @Ghostii_SpaceAre screenshots allowed?

This is an old thread, but I'd probably pick either Phobos (for the amazing views of Mars that no other moon in the solar system gets close to) or Pluto/Charon (the binary PLANET would be spectacular to see; Charon just hanging in the sky permanently.)

Starliner separation has occurred!

OFT-2 has LIFTOFF! (only 9 months late, but still...)

The Go/No Go poll is complete, and countdown continues.

Under 20 minutes to launch! Let's go! The access arm is being retracted.

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