Brotoro

The biggest question I would want answered is: Does the Europa life use the same genetic code as all life on Earth does? So I would hope your submarine is equipped with the necessary instruments to suck in some simple life form there (we wouldn't have to annoy the super-intelligent mega squids for this) and analyse the DNA (if there is DNA).

It does not rain sulfuric acid on Venus. It's clouds are made of droplets of sulfuric acid, yes, but any that rains down toward the surface evaporates long before it gets anywhere near the surface.

"Cato" is not an acronym. That was made up years later by people who didn't know 'cato' is just short for 'catastrophic failure'.

While the flu may not be dangerous to a healthy person, and therefore they might think it better for them if they don't risk any problems from the vaccine by not getting vaccinated, remember that they are allowing the disease to spread further than it would otherwise. So while they are toughing it out with their case of the flu, how many babies, old people, and others that are at high risk from the flu have they put in greater danger? I get flu vaccinations not just for myself, but to help protect everybody else in the population who are at greater risk than I am.

During a lunar eclipse, the shadow of the Earth falls on the Moon. The shape of that shadow is always circular, no matter how the Earth is oriented (i.e., which side of the Earth happens to be facing the Moon that day). The only shape that casts a circular shadow no matter which way it's oriented is...a sphere. Sorry, flat-Earthers.

How "large" is a "large rover"?

Somebody requested craft files for the SSTO rocket I have on Laythe (the VTOL...not the spaceplane). The links are below. He didn't specify whether he was looking at the original version or the more recent version with RAPIER engines, so here are both: Original version: http://www.mindspring.com/~sportrocketry/ksp/LaytheSSTO.craft RAPIER version: http://www.mindspring.com/~sportrocketry/ksp/LaytheRASSTO.craft

When you take a contract to test a part, you get to use as many of those parts as you want? (or can afford, I guess.) Sounds weird.

I will continue to hope that Squad will give us a method to recover dropped stages. Perhaps a special probe part that can be added to any subassembly (such as a dropped booster) that tells KSP (when this subassembly gets separated and moves beyond the normal physics limit) to calculate the landing for that hardware...at the cost of waiting a bit while this is handled, if necessary.

I know, I know, guys. It's just that there is a long drive back from Tylo's North Pole to do...and I'm having difficulty getting motivated to do the work.

Only if you give me lots of airbags to play with. But I thought the rules were to set the egg down naked.

If I *had* to do this with rocket motors, I'd drop the device initially on a small parachute harness to keep the rig stabilized. Then a timer would ignite three short-burn solid propellant motors that have the correct thrust and total impulse to bring the rig to a near stop at under 3 meters height (and simultaneously release the parachute by having one of the rocket flames cut the line to the chute). Then a set of three long-burn solid propellant motors (chosen such that their thrust is a little less than the current weight of the rig) would allow it to slowly descend the rest of the way in a few seconds. When a switch on the egg's crane line senses that the egg has hit the ground (the egg's weight is no longer on the line), a single high-thrust solid propellant motor mounted on the centerline will be fired to simultaneously cut through the egg's line and kick the rig up and away. A backup timer would kick in the exit motor at the end of the less-than-hover motors' burn, just in case the egg hasn't quite touched down before the less-than-hover motors cut out (if you are landing on grass or dirt instead of concrete, a naked egg can survive a small fall).

Yup. Definitely a nut.

Best time to stare at Mars is when it's in opposition.

This sounds like nonsense.

I do support SpaceX because my government has taken some of my money away from me and given it to SpaceX.

If an asteroid has a density about the same as water, it probably has a lot of empty space in it (like a rubble pile). Not the easiest kind of asteroid to move. And if it is a rubble pile with empty spaces, it would not float (since the density of the separate solid chunks would be greater than the density of water).

If you are able to transport me by disassembling me and rebuilding me so that the transported me has the exact same arrangement of atoms in the exact same quantum states, then I would accept the transported me as being me. It wouldn't matter to me if the individual atoms were not the same atoms -- atoms of the same type in the same quantum state are interchangeable and indistinguishable from each other. My atoms are being swapped out all the time. What makes me "me" is the information contained in the arrangement of my atoms. If you make a device that can produce a duplicate copy of me without destroying the original, then I would accept the copy of me to be equal in every way other than certain legal rights. I would not agree that the copy would have ownership rights to any of my property or access to the benefits or responsibilities for and contracts or promises of mine (unless I and all parties involved agreed to such things ahead of time). So whoever is going to start making copies of people had better get those legal issues worked out first.

My game file is in year 27 (Earth units). The Laythe Mission has been going on for 4 years 280 days (Earth units). I don't use any mods to allow physics warp during long engine burns. I just use the Alt key in conjunction with the time-warp keys to turn up to the maximum physics warp that the ship can handle without excessive wobble (usually 2x or 3x). I used to use MechJeb to help keep the ship pointed at the maneuver node marker during the long burns, but nowadays the SAS works pretty well at holding the heading during burn.

Thompbles has been to Bop before, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind a chance to visit Pol.

Niiiiice spaceship.

I have gone back and edited the page-based links into post-based links (like the ones I've been using recently...I did not originally know how to make those). Hopefully that works well for you. The first longterm Laythe crew had FOUR kerbals: Thompbles, Kurt, Aldner, and Nelemy. They we part of my project to set up either longterm bases or extensive explorations of all the bodies of the Kerbol system (starting with Minmus, followed by the very interesting Jool system). That crew was planned to already have gone back to Kerbin a couple years ago, but the massive Kerbol-mega-flares threw off that schedule. Hellou and Emilynn were the crew sent to do extensive exploration of Vall. That surface exploration was slated to be less than a year long, with reusable lander and rovers to be left at Vall for use by follow-on crews (but it was not planned that Vall would be continuously staffed). Their Vall mission was cut short by the Kerbol-mega-flares, and Hellou and Emilynn fled to Laythe. There they were incorporated into the now-extended Laythe mission of the first crew. There were also extensive exploration missions planned for Tylo, Bop, and Pol (like the Vall mission, these would not be permanent bases, but they would leave hardware in place that could be used by future explorers). Those missions got cancelled by the Kerbol-mega-flares. At least the aspect about sending out kerbals with the mission hardware was cancelled. But the mission hardware for the Tylo, Bop, and Pol explorations got sent out unmanned... and the original Laythe crew was given the choice of doing those missions before returning to Kerbin. So... Once the Kerbol magnetic activity returned to normal and the replacement Laythe crew was given the go-ahead to start their year-long trip to Laythe (six kerbals now en-route), the kerbals in the Jool system were also cleared to do the off-Laythe explorations. So, Hellou and Emilynn have returned to finish up their interrupted Vall mission, and Aldner and Nelemy went to explore Tylo. After maybe a half year of this, some or all of them will go on to explore Bop (that hardware, as well as the Pol hardware, will be arriving in the Jool system in several weeks, and will be maneuvered into place remotely by Thompbles and Kurt). Then some or all of the extended-Laythe-crew kerbals will stop to explore Pol for a few months before finally heading home to Kerbin (the replacement Laythe crew will have arrived at Laythe by then). I know it's somewhat confusing when there are several staggered payloads coming and going, and I have activities going on in the Jool system in the meantime (I don't just launch something to Jool and assume everyone is sitting on their hands while I zip through the year it takes for the payload to get there...because that would be thoroughly unrealistic). For example, after the Bop and Pol payloads arrive, there is the claw-based refueling equipment that will arrive in the following window (which Kurt will test out on Laythe), and THEN the replacement crew finally will arrive at Laythe. Also: Over 200,000 thread views. W00t!

1. Focus on Kerbin in the Tracking Station display. 2. Click on the Knowledge Base icon on the right edge of the screen (the bottom one of two). 3. ??? 4. PROFIT!

There aren't any observed phenomena of incredible densities on Kerbin's surface. I think before that you mentioned something about the water having an incredible density, but this is not the case. We know the masses of spacecraft parts (since the game will give you the mass of your ship), and a capsule floats partially submerged in the water as expected (instead of hardly submerged at all, as it would if the liquid in the oceans had extremely high density). Kerbals also float partially submerged in the water (and we know the mass of kerbals from game data). All we see when we get floating I-beams and such is crappy modeling of floatation physics and water behavior (including no implementation of tides). You also mention something about a lack of clouds on Kerbin…but I see clouds outside the VAB door (they just aren't included in the rest of the game yet, but considering how well mods can do at adding clouds without a great CPU hit, I expect that clouds will be added eventually).

Real Life rockets are MUCH larger than KSP rockets. Below is a graphic I made comparing the size of a Saturn V to the size of my Mark Twain rocket that I used in my original round of missions to explore all the bodies in the KSP system.