Wjolcz

Yes. It's called air-augmented rocket. It also increases specific impulse, but I might be wrong about that one. Russians experimented with that during the cold war but AFAIK they modified only one ICBM (Gnom) to have something like that, the engineer working on it died and nobody ever tried to do anything with it. There's also a NASA project like that.

I've been wondering this myself recently, but then: So, I don't think it's even possible to imagine what it would look like.

According to Spaceflight Now Crew Dragon demo is to happen sometime in August.

Pretty sure Block 5 is not getting any more improvements as it simply can't if they want to man rate it. There won't be any more versions. Unless we're talking FH launches. Even Block 5s need to be modified to be used as FH boosters and core stages (AFAIK).

https://www.deviantart.com/wjolcz/art/Asteroid-Day-752381685 Happy late Asteroid Day! Let's make our best to never get hit by a space rock. Edit: why does the link work no more? The last time I posted a link it autoconverted into a picture. Let's see if this works:

I'm aware of this but redder =/= brighter so this doesn't answer my question. I'm sure it's not just the case of bigger = birghter because it also depends on the spectrum of the star. Red dwarves are bright but in infrared spectrum (like Proxima Centauri). Unless we're assuming the spectrum doesn't change then I'm pretty sure if the Sun shrunk and kept the same spectrum it would actually lead to an ice age on Earth. Also, are we assuming this catastrophic phenomenon turns the Sun into a fully convective star like red dwarves? If so then the X-rays from the core would get blasted out and wreak havoc in Earth's atmosphere. Do keep in mind I'm not any kind of cosmologist so anything I write here might be wrong.

Not to bash your idea but you might as well add mutated neutrinos or monoliths to the story. But then the monoliths from 2001 weren't indestructible because one of them got hit by a meteorite and got damaged so they would probably not survive the interior of the Sun. Also, why does it have to involve some sort of catastrophy? I mean, I know a lot has been already invented by the Sci-Fi genre and it's hard to come with some interesting ideas (I'm struggling to come up with anything on my own tbh) but if I was to write a story I would make it about humans and how they deal with stuff. Part of the reason why I like The Martian and The Expanse so much is because of its complexity and how humans interact with their environment instead of "The Sun/Earth's core is dying and we need to drop nukes on it to reignite it". Maybe try something semi-realistic like that. There's really not many options left when your star is about to die/explode. Either just get the hell out of your solar system or build fusion reactors and rely on that. BTW, don't stars get brighter because they get bigger not the other way around? The more surface for light to escape from the birghter it should be, right?

I refuse to ever feel bad about that.

We all know why this won't happen tho. Not soon, at least. BFR needs to fly first. They would never spend money on a telescope that can be launched by one rocket that has yet to fly. But then there's the SLS. We have another thread to complain about that one though. That being said, I think that once BFR is flying we will see crazy big and powerful things (telescopes included) being launched into space. If BFR ever flies I'm sure a JWST's successor will fly on it. It will be bigger, less complicated and cheaper.

tl;dr MORE PARTS!!!!!!! I will only say that I still remember procedural craters to be coming to more bodies than one (AFAIK currently they are only on the Mun), "Shmelta-Vee" still isn't stock and "science" points are still just research points and I'm not even gonna talk about career mode because that's what awakes my demons. Allthe rest I can mod (+dV indicators), so I don't care that much.

March 2021?

I agree. It's just that I feel like people would rather pay for something that's been done and proven (parachutes) than something that's new and possibly risky. Now, I think that nothing bad would happen if they would land it that way. Especially since D2 has so many spare engines. Ok, maybe fuel type isn't the reason why it's cancelled. The crew could simply wait for the fumes to go away. I also think I've seen someone mentioning development of the legs being problematic, or something. But there's not much point discussing it since it won't happen anyway. Would be amazing if it did though.

I wish. Maybe they could try doing that on their demo flight. But the problem is NASA probably wants to see each stage of flight/return to be as if it was an actual mission, so probably no propulsive landing. Does anyone know if the D2's mass/engines/fuel amount changed since the announcement of propulsive landing? If it didn't, it's theoretically possible to still land it. I don't really see anyone wanting their cargo returned that way though. And since the only place you can return (pressurized) cargo from is the ISS then it's NASA who needs to give the permission for that and AFAIK they didn't. Unless Bigelow or some other private company wants to put something in D2 for whatever reason then there's no point in returning anything propulsively. But then the cargo might as well end up being transported to the ISS. Unless it's some hazardous materials I don't see a reason why would anyone want to rent a Dragon and keep it in orbit for a while. But then why put any hazardous materials in it in the first place if you have to deal with them later on the ground? So the only instance in which they could land it like that is just for the sake of it. But since they already know how to land boosters then there's no point in spending money on launching D2 just for the cool return video.

I don't even want to think about how much damage would a little bit of cold gas do to the sensitive instruments JWST has. Probably even an ion-based RCS would do more harm than the robot could do good to the telescope. About that BFR telescope thing: not only it would be bigger but also simpler as the mirror could be cast in one piece instead of being all origami like JWST. It would be like HST 2.0 except probably even cheaper than that. That's what makes me so excited about the BFR. It makes so many things possible and available sooner.

The fuel and exhaust products are too toxic. Edit: from Wikipedia: "On 24 July 1975, NTO poisoning affected three U.S. astronauts on the final descent to Earth after the Apollo-Soyuz Test Projectflight. This was due to a switch accidentally left in the wrong position, which allowed the attitude control thrusters to fire after the cabin fresh air intake was opened, allowing NTO fumes to enter the cabin. One crew member lost consciousness during descent. Upon landing, the crew was hospitalized for five days for chemical-induced pneumonia and edema." NTO is what Dragon 2 will be using. I'd imagine it will be for in-space manouvering and LES only.

Or anything by The Cartoons. Just to make sure passangers go mad (instead of being annoyed) in less than 10 minutes. So how much do they charge for a fligh-proven Dragon and a first stage? Same as if it was a new F9? They are probably making more money if that's the case. I wonder what happens with LOP-G once people start flying on BFR. IIRC it will have a similar living volume to ISS and LOP-G will be smaller. So if BFR is operational they could use it instead.

I'm sure there's a way to play violin in space in a way that it's doable and comfortable enough. Maybe use a magnet or a velcro, or something.

Still waiting for the procedural craters for other bodies (only Mun has them) and maybe a life support of some kind. I don't expect that to happen tho.

Doubt it. Solar polar orbit with a gravity assist from Jupiter is certainly possible though. Maybe it would be possible to go from polar to retrograde, but that would take a lot of time. Somebody should try that in KSP.

There's that one zipping by Jupiter in a resonanse orbit. It was likely captured soon after the solar system had formed. Scott Manley made a video about it.

Europa has some really weird stuff under the ice.

Well, yeah. But if there will be a plan to build a base eventually they will do that anyway. Might as well test out the crane/elevator and lower down some components/equipment of the future base.

Cool. The more New Space launch providers the better. One of them is going to succeed eventually lowering launch costs even more.

What resources? Helium-3, water and aluminium? What else? Moon is basically ash from collision. Maybe there are resources but they are either deep down or right on the surface. At least Mars has an atmosphere that can be used for ISRU. Don't get me wrong. I think a Moon base would be great but for other reasons. There are simply things that are needed on Mars and can't be tested on the Moon so there really isn't much point in stopping there first. Unless the point is delaying the Martian settlement for the sake of stopping on the Moon first.

I'm not an expert but I also don't think lessons learned on the Moon would be applicable on Mars. Maybe some. Certainly not all of them though. Now if we're talking about LOP-G: I'm not a fan of that station. Stations are cool and all but is spending money on that thing really that good of an idea? You might as well build it in LEO and THEN transform it into a spaceship with propulsion AND go to Mars. And you'll probably save money by doing that. Now, would I like to see 150mT being landed on the surface of the Moon? Hell yeah! A base is a great way to learn things. Lava tubes: Learning how to live in them and properly securing them and all that stuff would certainly be useful on Mars as there seem to be lava tubes on both the Moon and Mars. Making shelters with regolith? Lunar dust is not the same as the Martian one AFAIK so the tech would have to be modified. Is ice mining so hard it has to be done on the Moon first? Don't think so. I'm sure a lunar base wouldn't only be used for Mars tech R&D. There could be other things like observatories, low-G biology experiments, new methods of 3D printing and probably something else.