Tommygun

. . Mars rover eats dirt! Well it actually took in it's first dirt sample yesterday. It's looking for organic compounds among other things. I just can't stop downloading the Mars images coming from Curiosity.

You can also mount a space elevator to the ocean floor in international waters and build a big oil rig type platform around it. Although, I think there has been a lot of talk about stability problems with the elevator as soon as you try and actually move something up and down it. I have my doubts we'll see it in our life time and I personally hope we never mass produce anti matter, just too dangerous. Fusions power and VASMIR engines would help getting things around cheaper once in space and really open up manned space flight to other planets. There is one idea that seems to have faded away in resent years that I think could be a more attainable alternative to the space elevator. Using lasers to lift payloads into orbit. I think on a technical level it could be done much sooner than the elevator.

Sorry, I was trying to remember an article from a few months back. Those numbers you posted are titled as "revenues", do you have any that list profits?

It just keeps getting bigger! Has anyone calculate the delta V for escaping that runway?

I've always wondered what the environmental issues would be of minding off world and getting the minerals to Earth. There are two ways to get the materials down: drop them like a controlled slow meteor landing or fly it down. On an industrial scale you would have tens of thousands of smallish re-entries giving off smoke and pollution as they come down with the first method. The second way would be slow and expensive and you have to send the lander back up.

That engine is looking great, very detailed. I wonder how much of that 4.8 tonnes can be final payload?

Mars One will never happen. TV doesn't get the kind of money needed to start a Mars colony. Corporate sponsors are not going to give away billions of dollars on a money losing venture. Also keep in mind that most people stop watching the Moon landings after a few missions. The people behind Mars One from what I understand are the same people that started Biosphere 2, that is, a group of theater actors. They are good at publicity, but the engineering challenges and financial realities are outside their expertise. I think this is one of those stories that are popular in the press, but will go nowhere. TV’s 10 Most Profitable Shows. 10. “Modern Family†($2.13 million per half hour) 9. “Mad Love†($2.59 million per half hour) 8. “Big Bang Theory†($2.75 million per half hour) 7. “Desperate Housewives†($2.61 million per half hour) 6. “Dancing with the Stars†($2.72 million per half hour) 5. “Grey’s Anatomy†($2.75 million per half hour) 4. “Glee†($2.8 million per half hour) 3. “Two and a Half Men†($3.24 million per half hour) 2. “The X-Factor†($5.5 million per half hour) 1. “American Idol†($6.64 million per half hour)

Low profile tanks are nice for rovers as they tip over less.

Jeb won't have used the chute.

Case you might be interested in this as Phoenix_ca is doing similar work and needs more data. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/10088-Kerbin-Geographic-And-Science-Society?p=287485&viewfull=1#post287485

Nice clean lines. Looks like a real rocket.

It may not work yet, but you look cool as you plunge to your death.

That one picture reminds me of the bio domes from that SciFi Silent Running movie when the garden domes get shot out into space.

How would people feel about very large kethane deposits of 2 million liters or more that are several kilometers deep? You would need equipment 10 to 15 times heavier to drill for it and processes it, as well as having to drill 2 to 3 hours to reach the right depth. You could even have the kethane controller represented as a maned outpost. All the equipment would of course look bigger, think oil drilling towers and ground mounted tanks etc. Although they would still need to be compact enough to land by rocket.

Just had a fun Spertnik moment. I was launching a mapping satellite when something whizzed passed it making a peeping sound. When I looked at the map view it was Spertnik. I didn't know another vehicle could trigger sounds just by being near it. That was a fun surprise.

Oh, I thought I had a pretty up to date copy, but I see the change log has more recent changes. Thank you.

The sizes look good to me. I think having a 1m and 2m annular version would be very useful. I can see the 2m working well with the Deep Space mission pack. The only thing I'm not a big fan of is the shade of green on the kethane equipment. I wish it was a lot darker or olive drab, but it is an established color now, so I guess it is set in place. Those radial detectors are great, especially if they could give a general direction to search in, although with some built in error would be good to keep it from being too easy. Also I would be happy if we could just search at times 50 speed to match the ISA mapper.

Well in some ways a bit like Star Trek in that they were going from world to world, but there was a longer running story arc for the series. It had a bit more humor in it, at times a little too much, but nothing like Sorbo's Hercules. I think my favorite part of the show was the ship and Lexa Doig's portrayal of the ship's AI. The ending was a little weak in that that they rushed to wrap up the story in a few episodes, but they probably had little choice as the series ended a season sooner than they expected. I don't think I would recommend buying the DVDs, but if you can find it on Hulu or Netflix, you may want to try it out.

I'm assuming it must be a gas giant as something smaller would get thrown out into space? Edit: Yes it is a gas giant, but I'm surprised it is only six times larger than Earth.

I believe the PROFAC scoop takes 30 to 40 days to generate its own mass in liquid oxygen or could provide enough oxygen every 20-30 days to launch 15 tons of payload into lunar orbit. It seems to be a slow process in real life. So liberties need to be taken.

I believe the active radius is just the vehicle/object you currently have selected.

That Annular design and side mounts would fit best with the modular design of the KSP building system I think. Especially with the new docking mods being worked on, it does keep the nose free. But there is nothing wrong with having three or more choices, just look at all the engines we have with the community mods.

You can now build an Avenger's flying Helicarrier!

What made me think of a side scoop was the US Air Force's WaveRider. It has a single square scoop at the bottom. I suppose you could mount several radially if you wanted.

Nice square scoop Nhnifong, maybe bigger scoops though? Have you tried a wide mouth oval scoop? I also came across an interesting scramjet intake too.