Kerbface

With technology that is generally thought to be possible without much dissention and likely to be available within the next century (No antimatter drives and no FTL travel) design a mission to the Jovian system. You can use existing or planned craft or make up your own. You must get at least 1 person on every Gallilean moon with enough time to gather enough samples and do enough scientific exploration to make the trip a valuable one. Your goals beyond that are optional. More detail = more points, and more points = more self-satisfaction.

First stage soft landing? That's the grasshopper right?

I don't know whether you'd consider it "theory of mind" but quite a lot of animals seem to be able to display a certain amount of empathy. Dogs, for example, often seem to really care about their owners, and I believe elephants have been known to grieve for quite a while over lost herd members.

I've heard a lot of doubts of the cost-efficiency, necessity and potential to actually be completed of these craft, but some people seem pretty excited about it. So yeah. Is it the way to go? Particularly thinking about Spacex, Dragon is often compared similarly or even favourably to Orion, and Musk has made a few references to a "Mars Colonial Transporter" in planning.

Humanity is a funny case in evolution, maybe I'm wrong, but it feels like things we value now, such as caring for the weak (even the permanently weak) and being somewhat less discerning than most animals in terms of having the strongest or most talented reproductive partner, seem like it sort of goes against natural selection. Obviously other animals do have a certain amount of altruism, but I don't know if any have it to the level of humans. Although in our social environment perhaps it's helpful even (I certainly enjoy the kindness of humanity), but it is not survival of the fittest. Like I read a while back that instances of colour blindness are increasing continually, because we build an environment for ourselves where someone can get by with being colourblind and when they have problems with it, we assist them, and it's usually barely a factor at all in choosing a mate. On the other hand, apparently a cure for colourblindness that has been tested on monkeys is on the way (Causes you to grow the missing cones). Anyone want to comment on the accuracy or innacuracy of the idea of humanity not really following the traditional model of natural selection?

Radiation protection = water. Just pack some bladders around habitats and pump it from the ocean. EDIT: Oh wait, you mean for individual Kerbals, in which case, within our current understanding, no, they couldn't, unless it was very heavy. Unless of course Laythe's atmosphere and magnetic field block out most of the radiation from Jool.

Yeah, I love practical effects, but on the subject, the one thing that bugs me is that the colours of the moon and the vehicles flying above the moon are often pretty badly mismatched (and not in a consistent way).

Launching in Texas? That's an interesting idea... Would it perhaps be more efficient to launch in Texas and have the first stage land at Cape Carnaveral (or however it's spelled, I always get this wrong)? It would mean you don't have to worry about limiting your gravity turn and perhaps the the stage could coast on it's own momentum longer and require less fuel to land. Or maybe not.

I think this forum is pretty good, I mean not perfect, sure, but what forum is? There'll always be problems. But I like to come here, it's nice, and I spend most of my time in the science labs. I don't think people are condescending even though I know a lot less than most of them, it's a nice sort of mostly personal argument free zone, I never feel angry here, and I often find myself feeling angry at people on other forums for showing massive amounts of hypocrisy, bigotry and generally jerk attitudes, as well as refusing to listen to anyone.

I'm pretty sure the screens use some sort of projection method. They weren't CRTs, they had way too much resolution and were completely flat. And I know the rest of the film was not computer genreated, like using double exposure for the planets with the model ships and whatnot. I was only unsure about the simple wireframes. Certainly the amazing models were infinitely more complex than any computer could create (And I think they still look better than more or less any CGI ships I've seen).

I thought they might have been illustrations. I didn't think 3D CGI existed at that point.

Here's a "documentary" I wrote about it some time ago. On the scorched rock known as Moho, first planet from Kerbol, strange activity is afoot. Kerbanauts near the North and South poles have reported strange forces attracting them towards enormous holes of unknown depth. The question of the identity of these holes has been a question since they were first discovered. Now, thanks to extensive investigation and examination from probes and unlucky kerbals alike, the secrets of this bizzare state of nature have been revealed. The giant Mohoan space worm is the largest living thing ever known to have existed. In any case it's a lot larger than the average kerbal. This creature fills the entire height of Moho. With a mouth at each end, it is speculated that the planet may have formed around it. On the surface, it appears to have a rather strange but simple physiology. It has a round mouth, no teeth nor jaw mechanisms and simply appears as a large rocky hole. But scans have revealed a more complex structure. Tendrils extrude from sides of the body, which may have been used to grasp passing peices of material, assisting it in forming it's rocky cocoon. At the base of the mouth, these tendrils reconnect to form strange rings. A bioelectric current is generated and a magnetic charge is generated to pull metallic objects continually towards the more central rings until they are forced into the gaping mineral coated mouth. From there, the objects sink down into the bely of the Mohoan space worm until they reach a point about 5 km down where it seems the trail ends. However, given enough time, the presence of matter here will cause the worm to begin digestion, crushing the item and consuming all of it's material. From there it is presumed that what the worm cannot benefit from eating it ejects into the surrounding rock, making it's trap ever larger.

The Moholes are the 2 mouths of of a giant Spaceworm that feeds off debris by drawing magnetic material in to the rim of it's mouth using bioelectrical magnets.

I can't seem to find info on this, but you know in 2001 in some scenes they had wireframe models on screens, like when HAL is explaining about the part that needs replacing in the dish? It shows the model of the dish and rotates it in wireframe. Was this an actual 3D CGI wireframe or was it just drawn to resemble it?

I know that things are not simple, my only problem (and I don't mean to insult you or anything, I appreciate your input and it's always very detailed and intelligent, I'm just wondering if your perspective is ideal) is that often you seem to be saying towards most ideas, more or less "There's no point in really trying to develop this or other solutions, because there may be complications down the line". And I agree that there will be complications with more or less everything, but I also think that throughout our history it's only the times that people have gone out and invested in ideas which aren't surefire that real progress has been made. Sure, things failed and projects seemed doomed, and sometimes they were, but then sometimes that payed off, and big time. I mean the Wright brothers could always have looked back at the countless failed flight attempts and decided it wasn't worth it, but they didn't and now we have commercial airliners that let you travel anywhere in about a day at most. So I think that the attitude that it's (whatever it is) never going to happen probably is only reinforcing that it's never going to happen.

Happy Kerthday everyone! Anyone? I'll go now.

Well it's nice to know there are still people in the film industry willing to defy conventions to make the kind of movie they want, but it's a shame that we may never see the return of trailers that fit the style of the film. Can't have a trailer for a serious movie without loud explosions and cut/quick fades to and from black every couple of seconds accompanied by a "Drrjjh!!!!" sound of some kind.

Extra large rocket parts, for serious rockets. You can't make a rocket like the Saturn V that gets wider as it goes down and is still wide enough to hold a decent manned payload at the top unless you make the lower part out of radially attatched tanks. So there should be a wider set of parts.

What about rather than a tether have a strong I-Beam or other sort of girder, or a set of metal poles, connecting habitat to lander. Obviously the downside is weight, the upside is sturdiness and more control.

Well I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. You don't seem to be very supportive of many ideas really, it seems you're always sort of on the side of "Humanity will and should do nothing or the least possible" in most topics on this forum. But maybe I'm just too optimistic.

A giant freaking asteroid that we've already identified and tracked as being on a trajectory towards Earth is a lot harder to deny than humanity's impact on the climate. And a lot more iminent a threat.

That gives me an interesting idea for a story or something. People on the first interstellar mission go out and find that the planets in neighboring star systems are poorly rendered. I don't know, sounds kind of goofy, but I feel like there's something there.

No it wouldn't. Politicians can't stay in power if they're dead. If a group of protestors doesn't stop your average war it's not going to stop governments from saving the planet if they're otherwise capable of it. And the people who want to NOT stop a giant asteroid from killing us all are going to be a very small minority.

Uh... my head hurts... I can't stand to wear glasses for more than a few hours at a time, let alone goggles.

Um.... 2001 was set around Jupiter... I'd say you were talking about the book which I think uses Saturn instead of Jupiter, but then that's not a visual depiction...