NovaSilisko

I always standardized my launchers now. I like the challenge of fitting the desired payload into a given fairing and lifting capability. My current standard medium lifter, for example (using RSS), approx. 7 tons to LEO. It has optional side boosters, which themselves can be used as the first stage for another launcher

A physicist from NASA commissioning an artist to make a fantasy spaceship doesn't make it a NASA design... I wish journalists would get this through their heads. They always seem to do this.

I found this today - a very interesting series of videos detailing how the vision systems (eyes as well as brain) of the humble toad work, as well as the experiments conducted to help learn about these things. Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: (videos were originally in german, then dubbed over in english, hence german text in some areas)

I am genuinely impressed this thread has managed to go on as long as it has...

Cloverleaf antenna. Apparently it's a good design for an omnidirectional antenna Despite how it looks, it's four-way symmetrical and not actually a jumble of wires.

Yeah, that's a good one...

Antennas, neither really textured yet: 1. Unknown. Likely a few dozen at best. But, they hopefully will be completely moddable, so new ones can be very easily added as time goes on. 2. Yes, most likely 3. No. Unless it has a constant source of material, the ring will be dispersed quite quickly due to the lack of any stable orbits

Here, have another statement of its invalidity: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140609/07284327524/no-supercomputer-did-not-pass-turing-test-first-time-everyone-should-know-better.shtml Cleverbot fooled 59% of judges, as stated in that article.

Maybe the wait means they've actually put in some effort to make it work properly on the PC, unlike GTA IV...

The probe core poofed when the crawler flipped over.

I did the logical thing, and tried to make it bigger: [

I am contemplating how to make that work. An idea I had is that you could perhaps start a new game at different points on the tech tree, like in Civilization. So, if you wanted to start at the endgame with everything available, you could.

Initially with a circuit diagram sort of interface for hardwired things, later with a programmable microcomputer using a BASIC-esque language. The latter can have new instructions transmitted to it in flight.

To echo the sentiment I've seen elsewhere, the spaceship from outside kinda looks like a bracelet made of porta-potties. Not sure I get the reasoning behind the premise. We need food = we need to literally enter another universe?

Depends on what cloud layer you're in! There are large clear spots, depending where you come down you might have several minutes of clear skies before entering the clouds.

http://www.arcaspace.com/en/haas2c.htm ARCA is attempting to. But the most they seem to have right now is a mockup and a partially built engine.

For disposal. A process which will take on the order of a few minutes, during most of which the spacecraft will be on fire and converted to plasma

The "Science" Labs

Made a general purpose light controller with strobe functions. Since you can program automatic functionality into spacecraft, and you'll be able to link lights to that, I fully expect people to make a hopper-operated flying calculator in the future...

My personal opinion is that, if unmanned stuff came first, putting your first fragile, terrified, failure-prone kerbal into orbit would be much more rewarding after having gone through unmanned tests first, working your way up to the accomplishment. God forbid someone wants something different than you, rite? Besides, Orbiter doesn't have any of those things without mods anyway, so... Not everyone's definition of fun aligns with your own. I think it's quite clear the OP would find it more fun himself to have unmanned things...

If it flies. But, given the alternative missions competing for the same slot (Venus lander/balloon, lunar sample return, trojan asteroid orbiter, or a comet sample return mission), I would personally rather have one of the alternatives. The Saturn probe would do better to be bundled with a larger mission, either heading to Saturn in the first place or perhaps just flying by for a gravity assist...

Camera = mass and cost, the two additional things you don't want on a space mission. Plus, on a probe with such a limited lifetime, you want to maximize the amount of bandwidth going for the primary scientific data as opposed to things like pictures. Nowadays though, cameras are a lot lighter and cheaper than they were when Galileo was designed. Might a gas giant entry probe have a camera now? We'll see, whenever one is made again...

Wow, this thread is still going? 2001 was fantastic to me, but the pace is too slow for some (like Icarus). I don't really mind methodical pacing, and still enjoyed it greatly. And yknow what - who cares? I say let people like and dislike what they want, as long as neither party complains to the other about liking or disliking something.

Start small! Making your first project your or anyone else's dream game is a recipe for problems and disappointment.

They're static, BUT I'm contemplating having the very rare occurrence of rotating objects... though it may feel too inconsistent with the rest of the universe.