Missingno200

I agree with the game modes, despise how you are handling them. Ask to timewarp sucks, and owner being allowed to timewarp makes things even worse. How about the timewarp we've had in modded KSP for literally years and is proven to work. Also, there's no reason for it to be multiple worlds, we have confirmed multiple KSCs.

Kerbiloid:And they probably will be. We have 4 years before any serious attempts occur. Asteroids:Copper, titanium, gold, and more common elements like iron. Sure, you can easily access all of those on earth(although we are running out of copper), but its a lot less polluting, and there's far more resources. As time goes on, it'll also get cheaper. Antarctic:No. Extreme weather prevents any sort of emergency supply of food. Its arguably harder to get supplies to there than to Mars. My source is my dad, someone who did constant missions in the summer between New Zealand and Antarctica. Gobi Desert:This is fair. The main problem is excessive heat and even less water than Mars has. Soft terrain also becomes a problem, but that can be overlooked. You can easily sustain a long term settlement in the desert, the problem is that the Gobi doesn't have any good way to make back its money invested(no nearby metals, not really fantastic land for factory use, no materials to make anything that isn't a glass house), and short of proper terraforming or using the EXACT TECHNOLOGY THAT MARS WILL NEED FOR SELF SUSTAINING, you're really not going to self sustain that area. But hey, you know what, great idea! If it wasn't for the heat, I think this would be the perfect place to test that kind of equipment! One of you should start a company to do just that. Salt:Theres an untapped potential for sodium in urine. Pretty sure they even reuse it on the ISS, but I might be wrong. But what I'm not wrong about is that there are probably salts on Mars, which can be used for the missing sodium. Quick Google search, come on. At least I have an excuse, I'm too young to drink and I'm on a phone that can't support my fat fingers. No more please, I don't have a computer, I only have a phone that I struggle to type on.

Okay, since this is addressed to me, I shall try to dissect this argument. First off, the compounds. There's literally nothing stopping Mars from recycling these compounds once they're here. There's also nothing really stopping you from synthesizing them, as long as you have the ingredients and equipment, both of which could be shipped, and the ingredients don't necessarily have to even come from Mars. A lot of them actually could come from inorganic compounds. Admittedly, chemistry is one of my weak points, so I'll accept that I'm probably wrong on a bit, and that you should take this with grains of salt. I'm only making generalizations based on what I remember from a 2 semester high school class I had from 2 years ago. Now, biosphere. What is absolutely essential in a biosphere? Water and an energy source, usually some form of sugar. Oxygen is optional, but appreciated by most living organisms. Water is probably the trickiest one, and thankfully, accessible! Not only would the polar caps have water too, on top of CO2, but its been hypothesized (and I believe is currently being tested for) that there is subsurface water. This would mean that one of the biggest requirements is out of the way. You can synthesize oxygen out of the water as needed, but more than likely you're going to keep the same oxygen in your bases, and in an emergency, are going to resort to hauling some dry ice to scrub. That leaves energy, which can simply be recycled compounds. This is even just relying on what we have now, so no doubt this'll get greatly improved as technology invented solely because of Mars habitation occurs. This one is a doozie. Let's be polite, and suggest they aren't going to separate from our government and make their own medical advancements and other things they could trade. What do they have that we don't? Well, for starters, Mars is very close to the asteroid belt. Perfect, Mars now has a mining industry that is unparalleled to Earth's. Even if they focused on ONE asteroid, an asteroid like 16 Psyche could be used to fund a tonne of things. Given Mars has a gravity field, it also helps avoid one of the biggest problem of space living:decaying muscular structures. But wait, it's too expensive to reliably bring materials back from an asteroid to Earth... sounds like an excuse for factories to me. Its also a lot easier to take off from Mars than it is to take off from Earth, adding to viability for mining and manufacturing. Finally, let's address Mt. EVEREST. You're kidding. That was your counter? Jeff Bezo's counter too? First, have you TRIED to find an area flat enough for a nice, cozy home? Mars has way more real estate than Everest ever will, and thats before landscaping. Than let's address the cold, the thing atmosphere... so what, you're gonna build a pressurized pod in the mountains because you couldn't make a dome or something? How will you power that, an RTG that won't fit up there? And you won't be able to wear a protective suit either because EARTH'S gravity is too high for that! Elon Musk has a plan. I can't say that I agree with all of it, but its definitely well more thought out than a certain billionaire who hasn't even gotten a single orbit has ever put into a space plan. Also, none of this addresses potential technologies we can't even dream of, which appear as a result of necessity on Mars. As I'm writing this someone responded to me. I really hope I don't have to write the same article again. And they have. To minimal success with a full biosphere on earth, but to extreme success with hydroponics in space, water recycling, and so on. Current technology is enough to live, but not exactly thrive or be properly self sustaining.

I'm going to sign off on one more post and then leave this thread, but you guys seem to think that after the initial groundwork being done in 2026, there's not going to be any improvements to the colony. Quite the opposite, the plan is to slowly make it entirely self sustaining in 30 years. 30 years is a long time for technology to advance. Right now, I don't think the tech exists for self sustaining colonies on extraterrestrial planets. Thats also not something SpaceX is working on. SpaceX has adopted the policy of being the transport, and just letting other companies create the equipment necessary to live on another world. Which, in my somewhat uninformed opinion, is the best way to handle it.

Completely fair. It's not like his arguments were well researched to begin with. Some view them as subsidies. My dad and my uncle, both ex-military, view it as such. It depends on world views. That being said, his argument was still based on falsity after falsity so it only corrects his arguments up to a point.

I'm treating it as he actually means the government contracts, which gives his argument far more credence and makes a bit more sense.

Thanks JK.

Okay, I'm going to address something glaring here that kind of proves you should study a bit more before you continue. All of his vessels, including his planned 2026 martian vessel, the Starship, are NOT SSTOs. They're all 2 stage to orbit, while recovering the first stage, like a reverse space shuttle. The exception is the Falcon Heavy, which actually is 3 stages and recovers the first two. Additionally, the constant failures are seen because SpaceX applies rapid prototyping and testing to failure principles. A failure isn't truly a failure, just a part of the protocol to get all of the information they need for the next prototype. With that being said, he's notnagainst staging. He's against wasting the rocket itself. The vehicles themselves have put a lot into space. For example, right now, SpaceX is the only US launch provider capable(and consistently) putting astronauts on the ISS. Additionally, they don't just put astronauts into space, as they're one of the cheapest launch providers. Ignoring the SH/SS combo in prototype, the operational cost for the 9 is 28 million for a lifting capacity of 22.8K kg per launch to LEO if you recover the 1st stage. I won't go into the Heavy because I couldn't find operational cost, but its clear to see that the 9, which has had a total of 67 launches with recovered boosters, is not a bad idea. Hes not the only one recovering these rockets by the ways, smaller companies like Electron and Blue Origin are also recovering their rockets as much as possible to reduce costs. In this environment, in all likelihood, he's looking for others to inspire space to gain more manpower. KSP1 has done a far better job than the new space race to interest my generation and my brother's generation to space again. Before KSP, became popular I remember many people wanting to be celebrities, or world class chefs, nothing with those professions mind you,, but the notion of astronaut or rocket scientist was honestly frowned upon greatly. Even I didn't like the idea. I advise you to please do more research before you argue a standpoint. I've made that mistake in the past multiple times, and every time, it sucks.

I mean, except the fact that, according to statistics, the 9 and Heavy are far more cost effective than the Proton, and are working just fine. As for the ugly, if it works but looks like its stupid, it's not :p Still couldve done a bit more for the cool factor...

And do what? Sit on Earth? Ignore the second part of the space race, which was meant to be Mars before the USSR collapsed? I fail to see your reasoning for him to give up his ambitions. Also, he isn't the only one "reinventing the wheel", except this one is literal.

You cant solve every problem with money, you have to solve a large majority with cooperation with other entities.

Uh... it should be pointed out that there may not be enough workers for the job. NASA still has their own stuff to work on independent of Elon's ambitions. He may also be trying to get two generations that were NOT interested in becoming astronauts(millennial and early mid-late Z) to... yknow, become interested. I'm not entirely sure what he needs help with but you have to understand one company can't do everything.

Its not quite what I need, but boy it is close.

Probably the one he linked in my request for stock replays in KSP2.

So, closer examination shows it really isn't what I want, but its VERY close, and probably will be my solution for KSP1. KSP2 has a chance to implement this stock though, which again, I hope they do for a few reasons.

Yeah, almost looks like Persistent Trails may be it, but its not only unfamothably buggy, but also was apparently not what was necessary back then. Also, it hasn't been updated since 1.0.2, but I digress. It almost looks like this is kind of what I want. LMP doing that is what gives me hope for this feature, because I'm hedging my bets that they're going to try the D/LMP route of handling it as the final answer to the timewarp problem, which would indicate to me that they're going to have a very similar feature they could just retool.

I'll look into it later. Whats the mod like?

Click a button, it starts, click another, it stops? The demo feature is seen in many other games with minimal performance impact while recording, even when dealing with thousands of active physics objects. In normal play, one of these replays would only take have maybe 10-20 of those, the rest probably won't be active enough to necessarily need to record any input. The problem with replays is that they need all of the initial data to start recording. There's a lot of that in KSP and undoubtedly in KSP2, so this means saving every 5-10-15-20-etc minutes with a fresh save, which not only means tonnes of wasted space, but also it will be noticeable. Assuming it throws out the replay once it starts a new one, then the situation becomes that its totally unusable for long haul flights.

I'm shocked that such a feature doesn't exist in KSP1. From my understanding, it would need minimal effort to implement. In short, I want a system where I can record the inputs of the flight you are currently on. This then offers not only a lightweight and easy way to share "video"(although you'd have to provide a save file too), but also let's you get beautiful screenshots later instead of focusing on the flight at the same time. KSP has a surprising cinematic community, so such a feature would definitely get used, even if its only to record different angles for a video.

Just out of curiosity, whats wrong with the guys statement?

Engine clusters through engine plates were implemented in 1.12 so... not unreasonable?

I'm thinking about starting a forum let's play, and I was curious if a replay mod existed. I want to focus on gameplay first, and get all sorts of pretty images of my flight afterwards. So yeah, reiterating, does such a thing exist, or are we stuck with this exact problem from 6 years ago?

Doona, all the way. Its the NA in me.

Probably, and thats okay. As for the haircut, anyone can have a buzzcut so I suspect that's what most of mods for agendered or atypical kerbals will go for. Glad we agree.

Yeah, and now you know why they added female Kerbals. Still don't see the point of adding any more genders. Thankfully, all of this should be implementable by modding in the event if it is not there, so you needn't worry too much if you still want the full "spectrum" of culturally appropriated genders and then some. (56 is not a spectrum, that is a value you can store in a 6 bit number. I don't take this stuff too seriously, if you can't tell. I'm trying a more easy going approach to life.) Somehow, I doubt these plant like sentients(and potentially sapients) would realistically have more than 2, especially if they're simple enough for their success to be accidental. Given that they may even be fungal based, somehow I doubt they even need one gender. Mushrooms don't have male/female dichotomies right?