Stevex

You can get second hand office computers with a good cpu very cheap. Get one and a reasonable second hand GPU. Probably not worth trying to upgrade your computer as it is 10 years old I had it running on a R9 270 2Gb. KSP 2 does not really need fast FPS to be playable. I think if they had put a real minimum spec it would have been helpful. An RTX 2060 is not required to enjoy the game, but there might be cases where it crash due to lack of video ram on some old GPU Some of the tutorials crash my system for some reason. Probably lack of video ram.

R9 270 2Gb i5 12100f 16Gb Ram I managed to build a small rocket and launch it. I was unable to run the tutorial and switching between buildings seemed to crash the program. I think the GPU needs maybe 6 Gb of memory to achieve this. I will get another GPU and give this another go.

I was able to build and fly a rocket and only have a R9 270 2Gb. I could not run the tutorial and moving between buildings caused it to freeze. How much video memory do you have ?

I was hoping that we would have terraforming. e.g. Build large sunshields on a planet to cool it or seed with life to change atmosphere. I am still waiting for a modern version of SimEarth

I put this in the KSP2 section as I am hoping the developers might pay attention and allow for this and I presume space elevators by having very long high strength cable. On a similar theme we might have a mission to build a sunshade for planets to terraform them using very large sails at the Lagrange point. i agree the error margin for the skyhook is very small, so it would be time critical to be at the correct place at the correct time . This is something that could be automated. I have high hopes for KSP2 so what ever I can imagine and is scientifically possible I would expect could be added by the developers or modders. I would imagine you would use two craft with a catch cable between them (or one craft with two arms supporting the cable), which would catch the skyhook when it came round (similar to the arrestor hook system on aircraft carriers).

A momentum exchange tether is a kind of space tether that could theoretically be used as a launch system, or to change spacecraft orbits. Momentum exchange tethers create a controlled force on the end-masses of the system due to the pseudo-force known as centrifugal force. While the tether system rotates, the objects on either end of the tether will experience continuous acceleration; the magnitude of the acceleration depends on the length of the tether and the rotation rate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momentum_exchange_tether I don't know if this possible in KSP currently but it is a device that could lead to cheap space access IRL although it needs very accurate docking to use. IRL it could be solar powered reacting against the atmosphere or a counterweight (alternative cable). Compared with a space elevator it is much cheaper to build and is scalable, working with lengths of 1km to hundreds of km. It would be a useful aid to regain orbit from somewhere like Venus , from a cloud city, where rocket fuel is in short supply. It would also be cheap to build on planets and objects with no atmosphere where in theory you could walk into it from the ground and release in orbit.

For short term energy storage (up to a week) one of the most efficient and on an alien planet easiest to make using local resources is a very large flywheel connected to a motor/generator. Excess power from solar, wind and nuclear power plants would be fed into the flywheel speeding it up. When required power can be taken out. On Mars with a thin atmosphere there would be little drag on the flywheel. The flywheel does not need to spin fast, as long as it is heavy enough. It should be reasonably easy to make a balanced flywheel using local rock of maybe several thousand tonnes.

Radiation is not meant to be such a problem on Venus compared to Mars , as the thick atmosphere provides quite a bit of protection.

With planets like Venus, landing IRL would be impossible because of the pressure and temperature. What would be feasible is to build a base at about 50km where the pressure and temperature would allow a human to go outside with little more than a breathing mask. This could be simulated in KSP2 (sorry if it already has been) but would require the base to be an airship, supported by a lifting gas ( which for Venus would include breathable air). Interplanetary craft would have to de-orbit and then fly to the base. Fuel for the return trip could be made from the atmosphere by extraction of the correct gases.

https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/new-antimatter-gravity-experiments-begin-cern https://home.cern/science/experiments/gbar https://home.cern/news/news/physics/alpha-collaboration-cern-reports-first-measurements-certain-quantum-effects https://home.cern/news/news/physics/searching-matter-antimatter-asymmetry-higgs-boson-top-quark-interaction These are links to the Cern anti-matter gravity experiments. There is still no definite answer over whether there are particles repulsed by matter. The idea I had was in KSP2 you could trade space ships with anti-matter planets, where a ship could easily be made but when used in a matter galaxy would be repulsed. Careful flight planning could allow great speeds to be achieved by getting close to a black hole or a massive star, with the ability to slow down with no fuel use when you reach the next matter star. Some kind of repulsion shield would be required to protect the ship from particles it, would hit in flight. I am not saying this would work practically in real life , but in the Kerbal universe it could be made to work if the programmers set the physics accordingly.

An alternative method of propulsion that still has a possibility of working is the "Colbourne drive" where the spacecraft is made from anti-matter. The assumption is made that anti-matter would be repulsed by normal matter (Being tested by CERN at the moment). An anti-matter spaceraft launched from a matter planet would accelerate away until close to another matter planet or star where it would slow down. Anti-matter is very hard to make but if a planet of anti-matter was found a manufacturing plant could be set up , making these spacecraft as cheaply as submarines. A trade could then take place between these two types of planets selling ships to each other. These ships are also good for travelling from star to to star or even galaxy to galaxy, as no fuel is used (except for manoevering) on either accelerating or deaccelerating. Getting close to powerful black holes will give a really powerful push to maybe faster than light speeds.