Greenfire32

Ah I was thinking the magnets would be on the surface of the planet instead of in orbit, however I'll still maintain the concern of their effect on the Earth's natural magnetic field. As for the "point" of an orbital ring, it was really just for kicks and giggles as far as this thread is concerned. But I guess the practical use would be both for a launchpad to other planets as well as increased surface area for living I suppose.

I would like a base building component similar to how "Banished" plays added to the game. You could still play KSP like we do now, but there would also be a "Base Mode" that you could enter. Think of the city planner menus from Spore with the gameplay mechanics of Banished bundled nicely inside of KSP.

Fixed. /10chars

I haven't seen anything that would suggest that. Then again, SQUAD hardly releases any information about their official game on their official foru– Nevermind, we've had this discussion before.

lol don't worry. Happens to the best of us.

I'd rather the current ones get some serious upgrades first. Why should I go to Duna again if I've already been there? Is there something to explore? Not currently.

Yep just took me a bit to type a reply: That's a good way to look at it as well. Well for starters, we haven't been to the moon in over 40 years so I feel like the practice would be beneficial. But as I said, the only way to accurately learn the effects of Lunar (low) gravity on the human body is by putting one on the moon. We already know that micro gravity is harmful after extended periods of time, but what about low gravity? There's more gravity on the surface of the Moon than there is in LEO. Then there's the issue of lunar dust. If man were to have some kind of permanent settlement on the moon, what happens to the body when lunar dust is accidentely inhaled? What are the effects? What are the treatments? etc etc. Long story short: we can learn more about how to live in a hostile environment by just doing it. Not saying there shouldn't be robotic missions involved, just saying that's the only way we're going to master it. There's nothing that says we can't do all that. All I'm saying is that when the time comes for an off-world "colony," would you rather have at least some experience with the environment, or would you rather it all be a surprise? No, you're missing the point. The idea of a launchpad on the Moon is for rockets to be built, assembled and launched from the moon. First we have to determine the viability of such an en-devour (which is why a manned mission to determine these things would be necessary). Then we have to refine the techniques of doing something like that in a low gravity environment. And then we have to actually do it. The idea is to make it completely self-sufficient over time. Which means that launching from the moon would cut dV requirements tremendously. ...there isn't one. Hence the topic of the thread. Should NASA continue its ARM or should it relocate its resources elsewhere. For a while, yes. But then you run into the problem that AngelLestat pointed out. Launch materials to orbit costs money. Assembling in orbit costs money. Launching from orbit costs money. So for the immediate future, that would be the way to do it. But in the long term, an off-world base (preferably with less gravity and no atmosphere like the Moon) would be ideal for launching crafts. Costs would be basically nill compared to what they are here since you wouldn't need HUGE rockets to fight against gravity and atmospheric drag. This, of course, is assuming that the materials to not only build the rocket, but its fuel as well currently exist on the moon. Again, another reason why a Lunar mission would be of importance. Is this even feasible? Can this even be done? I don't know. Let's go find out.

picture or video? I'm having a hard time visualizing this.

And there's no sense crying over every mistake, you just keep on trying till you run out of cake! and the science gets done, and you make a neat gun, for the people who are still alive!

....no. I don't really think you're reading what I'm writing here... The only way we're going to learn how to live on another world is by, after all things considered, doing it. But if you think we'll figure out how to live on another planet without first figuring out how to live on the moon, you're insane. It's right there. Why shouldn't we reach for it? So far, all I'm seeing is "because it's hard and expensive." Space is hard. And expensive. Period. You cant say we shouldn't go to the moon because we don't know if it's valuable or not, and then turn around and say we should go to an asteroid instead despite the fact that we don't know if it's valuable or not. The whole point of conducting these experiments is to find out that value. Sure, we can measure the effects of micro gravity here in low earth orbit, but what about the effects of lunar gravity on the human body? There's more gravity on the surface of the moon than there is in LEO and the only way we're going to learn that is by going there. This is where we agree. However, I'll still say that I'd rather have a moonbase than a captured asteroid.

Well, I'm not complaining about a single Atlas V, just stating that I think efforts would be better used elsewhere. As for the cost of resupply to a permanent lunar base? 1) we don't know if there's valuable compounds on the moon that can be used as "fuels." That would be a good reason to go and find out, would it not? 2) we don't know how well a hydroponics lab would function on the lunar surface. That would be a good reason to go and find out, would it not? 3) once established and operational, a permanent lunar base could become self-sufficient. Become a colony even. But we won't know, until we go and find out. You cannot say that something is not worth doing, unless you prove it. Tons of people thought the Americas (the "New World") wasn't worth colonizing because there was nothing here. It wasn't until people came here and proved it could be tamed, that major populations started cropping up. Now, I'm not saying we should go willy nilly and "see what happens." There's definitely a right and wrong way to go about it. But saying we should ignore the moon simply "because" is a terrible excuse. No one is saying it won't be hard. No one is saying it won't be cheap. But that's no reason to just give up on what I consider to be the greatest resource within our relative grasp. We could learn so much on the moon. We could also learn a lot from ARM. I just feel like the moon is far more rewarding at this stage in the game.

Pretty much all of this right here. All the more reason to go there

I'm pretty sure its the magic boulder.

Why? It's not off-topic. I'm advocating that NASA should redirect their efforts towards the moon instead of going with the ARM and gave the moonbase concept as my reasoning. The OP says:

Eh normally you'd be right on the money, but in a case such as this, wouldn't the mission itself be "to find out what we can do on the moon?" since really all we've done before hand is...just go there? In a case such as this, you'd take everything. Measure everything. Report your findings back home and let them design another mission based off of first-hand reports. Robotics are great for trivial things like mineral composition and blah blah blah, but in order to find out what the long term effects of Lunar life has on the human body (such like you would find in an off-world mining operation) you need humans up there, not robots. I think if mankind is going to walk amongst the stars, we need to take the moon more seriously as a baby step. Yes, we've been there. But we need to live there too.

while I would LOVE to skip work for this, I don't thing I can. Mondays are pretty crucial to getting my job done XD *posted from work computer

So cool! I know there's a bit of a disconnect when you see these things in action, but holy smokes those engines are HUGE!

what about stock implementation of KAS? Wouldn't being able to do...anything...on EVA be considered a "long overdue feature?"

That would be the point of...doing science...on the moon...by landing on the moon....and doing science...

Is this plausible though? Is there a magnet (real or otherwise) that would be strong enough for this kind of thing? It seems to me, assuming that there is one, a magnet of such power would severely screw with the natural magnetic field of the Earth in such a way that...bad things would happen.

1/10 Sorry, never seen you around before.

The frustration comes from SQUAD violently disregarding time-based mechanics because they're, "not fun," and then adding a time-based mechanic at literally the eleventh hour before 1.0 release.

That's what I took away from that as well. The fact that SQUAD wouldn't support a 64bit release in the future and that there wouldn't be a 64bit download for 1.0 They didn't say they were removing the already existing version.

The word you meant was, "instead." While not directly, I am involved in advertising which is a related topic to marketing. *sigh* The problem is not that SQUAD has a facebook, twitter, reddit, etc. The problem is that the info they post on those channels, doesn't exist here in an official capacity at all. Unless some random user makes a thread saying, "Maxmaps made a tweet, discus," it doesn't get posted here. At. All. That is the problem. They want a twitter? That's OK! But you can't release bits of info here and there (such as things like heatshields for example), without making a post here. The common defensive argument is, "it would be counter-intuitive for Maxmaps to make a post on twitter and then come here to the forums and make a post here every time he wants to say something." But there's a really easy solution to that. See the "Now streaming" tab on the forum page? How hard would it be to add a "recent tweets" tab or a "recent reddit posts" tab?! That would solve all of the issues. For Kod's sake, I didn't even know there was a contest going on because SQUAD only said there was one exclusively on twitter! Same deal with the heatshields and fairings. Have you seen an official post here on these forums that say anything (ANYTHING AT ALL) about those things? I sure as hell can't find it. I found out about those things when some random user created a thread for them. I don't work for SQUAD. Why should I have to scour the internet looking for bits and pieces of info, gather them all up in one place (the official place) and then say, "for your convenience, look what I've done!" It's a giant pile of Malarkey and we all know it. SQUAD, I love KSP. But if you continue to treat your customers who have already bought the game like yesterday's news, you're going to lose your steam. And you'll lose it fast.

All hail the magical SAS