Jonfliesgoats

I found the thread for that later. I needed to scroll.

With real life airplanes, we would say: "This thing is hard to see, and we have to look left to fiddle with our widgets when we need to be looking right to execute our tactical over-squeeze maneuver!". "The oversqueeze maneuver only needs you to look right if you aren't using your new device to under-loosen the butter churn!" "Alright! so here is a test protocol for DER to verify that the underloosening churn screen does in fact conform to its type certificate data sheet with the currently modified systems and that the oversqueeze maneuver can be accomplished at least to standards set in (Government or Defense operations or Training Regulatory Citation)." "You're bald and ugly!" We would go round and round like that between departments for months leaving half-developed products in the field with onerous restrictions to capability or utilization rates. Dysfunction is ubiquitous. I'd say we all need to temper our expectations a bit and realize that solutions are indeed coming, but we may be waiting a long long time. Also, I adjusted my technical jargon to sound nonsensical because, in real life, we're all much more ridiculous than we think.

Mike, what trouble are you having getting your stuff to orbit? Have you experimented with your lifter design some? If cost is no object, asparagus staging gets ridiculously heavy payloads to orbit (in game). I ask the obvious to cross off some easy sources of frustration early, not to seconds guess you or your creativity. The faster we can get you flying, the faster we can get you to a fun place with this.

Any word on 1.2 for Xbox?

That was actually crossing my mind!

I think it would be pretty cool to have modular construction! Specifically, I think it would be cool if I was made from interchangeable parts. I could sail the cosmos, yanks bits of my brain out and put other bits in, remove and replace failing parts. Could be nice.

Right now, I don't think it is possible to freeze dry a person without killing them. Advances in crayon ice are being made all the time, however. Rather than seeing entire crew preserved, I could imagine a stock room full of spare organs and/or stem cells. With regard to freeze-drying per se, I don't think any techniques for freeze drying people like we do coffee are in the works. Cryonics and preservation are not field of expertise, however. Perhaps someone more informed would like to chip in?

So I had to rewatch the Tribbles episode specifically. The Tribbles at food stores, so independent of replicators, the vessel was required to carry some organic material, and that organic material was consumed by Tribbles. Another thought about fur: electroreception? In some fish this done with altered lateral lines. What about hair follicles that are sensitive and small charges in the fur. The fur would move slightly around electrical fields. This also implies that Tribbles are predatory.

Existing technology, like the old NPDE proposal from the late fifties, are within he realm of consideration. I can't get myself to rest my hopes on spice and psychoactive, telekinetic celestial navigators.

Adorable! Domocratization of innovation is really important. It took a fair bit of money to experiment with balloons. The result was relatively little progress in flight even though we had lighter-than-air capabilities throughout the nineteenth century. Unforeseen innovations (steam engines which laid the technical and human foundation for internal combustion) arrived. This combined with the relatively low cost of spruce and canvas allowed not just rich, like Alberto Sants Dumont, Bell, but poor, like Wright Brothers, Glen Curtiss, to experiment with heavier than air flight. Innovations in materials, low cost additive manufacturing or other techs stand to do the same thing with space. For now, its nice to see spaceflight moving from governments to private enterprise, even if it still is in the realm of established billionaires. The future looks bright for budding action-nerds.

I wonder if there are serviceability issues with Antares?

When I first learned of the EM drive two years ago, I was sure it was a pseudo-scientific ploy to separate a dumb venture capitalist from his money. I am not convinced this thing works in any sense of the word yet, but it will be sent to orbit. As I understand this thing works in a vacuum, does not require nearby metal objects, etc.. I still think confirmation bias from hopeful nerds plays a role in the success of the EM drive, but, if this thing does genuinely produce thrust in a vacuum, we need it in KSP. So what are people's thoughts on this thing?

Consciousness and space travel, many people suggest uploading our consciousness into a computer or clone. The nature of consciousness is confusnig, however. If we look at teleportation devices, we think Captain Kirk steps into a device, is converted to energy and rematerializes somewhere else. What is his experience? Does his consciousness move with him or is there a last, terrible joke? Is the transporter a suicide machine, pure and simple with a cheap replica of Captain Kirk materializing elsewhere with all of his memories and personality traits? The experience of someone entering the transporter could just be one of a surprising and agonizing death, and we would be none the wiser. A similar consideration exists with putting your consciousness into a hard drive. One consciousness would experience emerging into a new reality. Another you would simply experience putting a thumb drive into a machine. My point is that extending our memory with extra SD cards for our skull is no big deal. Transferring our consciousness would really get at some fundamental physics that we don't understand yet. And, yes, it's physics and math. I really enjoy where y'all have gone with this discussion! Imagine you are in the losing end of a consciousness transfer device,. You think transferring your mind to a robot will allow you to see universe. You do this and you lose a roll of the cosmic dice and you only experience plugging some wires into a device. That's it. Another version of you experiences the universe and comes back much more interesting, wise and astute than you ever can hope to be confined to your terrestrial life. He is, for all purposes, you. Your wife leaves you for you, which isn't cheating. Your kids love you better than you. You can see, in this conundrum the birth of malevolent doppelgängers.

You know, I have fifty plus lawn gnomes. If I make it so that I am buried with them, people will think I was some kind of lawn gnome cleric in the future. I have to convince my family to bury me in a swamp, like those bog people of Denmark.

Nature is pretty strange. Think about fungi that modify the behaviors of ants, wasps that lay eggs in other creatures, etc.. Tribbles and Mogwais aren't that odd in comparison.

There was another thread regarding midget astronauts somewhere too. I am not opposed to selecting jockeys for space travel. It is also conceivable that we could reverse certain aspects of the growth process to shrink prospective astronauts.

Taking a break from doomsday weapons, here is why we don't get grape ice cream: http://mentalfloss.com/article/88201/heres-why-grape-ice-cream-isnt-thing

Kirby a curse word? I thought it was a vacuum cleaner. any news on 1.2.1 for Xbox?

Good example with Newton. I wonder what Jack Parsons could have done without the likes of Crowley and Hubbard getting at him?

You're starving to death? That is easily remedied with sandwiches and coffee.

You know I was thinking about the Tolkien elves specifically. Reproduction would be checked with contraceptives and changing sexual habits. I think a bigger issue is the perception of time. I think, as we age, time seems to pass more quickly because each hour and day is a progressively smaller fraction of our lives. So, a long-lived crew may view a journey of decades like we view a deployment of years. On the other hand, if at some point our perception of time stops adjusting, cabin fever can become an even greater threat. From personal experience, extended deployments become struggles not just in monotony but in seeing the same people day in and day out. Something similar to a cruise ship in space may be necessary rather than luxurious. With long lives, we may see a paradigm shift. Perhaps our interstellar travelers will view themselves as citizens of their ships and visitors to new worlds? That identification of the ship as home may offset some frustration. I don't view myself as a citizen or member of my home town. Maybe some similar indoctrination would be useful?

You know, I never even thought to look for one! I bet it would update with GPS too!

Tribbles are very "metal"! A lot of advancements have come from technobabble.

You know in my current life I get busy for a couple hours and then have, like, eight hours to stare at stars before I get busy again. So I have been trying to figure out where I will be at a given time to catch an iridium flare at altitude etc. Honestly, I think I am still getting it wrong, but playing with the data and figuring the numbers is sort of a nice distraction from listening to routine office complaints, etc.

This is very cool! Thanks for posting it!