Gargamel

That’s why I have the sulfuric. But that won’t do the fade I’m thinking of. Painting would work better if I wanted a solid color though. And it’s foil. First time I anodized, I got the dilution wrong, and the 1/4” aluminum plate turned to powder in about 30 seconds. I don’t have high hopes for foil.

Good point, completely forgot about the reactivity of aluminum to oxygen, which I should have known from welding. TBH, I would probably have spent more time on getting an arduino winch to work properly and money on the chemical (I tend to acquire single use chemicals in larger quantities than I'll need, I have a liter of 95% acetic acid here somewhere, and there's also a gallon of 99% sulfuric acid buried in my shop too). My time and skillset would probably be better off buying a decent, cheap, airbrush and learn to paint a good fade. Although.... If I do this in a vacuum chamber, and dip it in one of the acids to remove the oxide layer, then dip in it something else..... Hmmm... No no... this is for a pen... I don't want it to suddenly decide it's time to reoxidize in somebody's hand.

In a "Huh, that's interesting" sort of way maybe, but otherwise it's apples and oranges. A flight sim only needs to track a player in 3 dimensions, plus a few vectors and some other info. A Space simulator, which KSP basically is, has to track the same info and vectors, but also needs to track a player in 4 dimensions and how to rectify discrepancies of that 4th dimension. Multi player in most games is quite simple in theory, server time is the time. That doesn't work in KSP, and that's 98% of the issue. The 2% is a well documented approach to setting up MP and the logistics of doing so, and really shouldn't even be part of the discussion because of this. Getting the theoretical side of time rectification to work specifically in KSP is the crux of the issue, not how many players can get on a single server. Will PD/IG create dedicated servers? I doubt it, but they may, but if they do, there probably won't be a lot of them. Cost. What we're most likely to see is the option for players to host servers of their own and invite players to them.

It also needs to be durable, like accidentally falling to the ground from paradrop height durable. Mud, sand, rain etc tolerant. It really doesn't do anybody any good if it's broken when it's needed. So they gotta make it heavy duty, but also light weight. Also, since some recon units are all on foot, and might be some distance from a reliable power source, there is probably a requirement for portable recharging. I'm not military, although I wish I had, but I bet if you ask any of our ex grunts if they would prefer to carry 3 more magazines of ammo or 3 lipo batteries that may burst into flames when bumped, I'm pretty sure they want ammo. The procurement office has probably laid out X Y and Z requirements for a drone, and most commercial ones fit X and Y, but not Z, so they haven't purchased any yet.

Let's make sure we keep this discussion aimed at Russian space launches et al. If we'd like to have a discussion of Apollo era RTG's or other such topics, let's start a separate thread for that.

Is there a relatively safe to handle (at home nutcase) liquid chemical that reacts with aluminum foil to change its color gradually? I’m thinking of making some aluminum foil pen blanks, which I’ve worked with before, but with some sort of color fade to it. I’ll rig up some arduino based winch to slowly lower and lift the foil from the bath.

Commercial drone is commercial. Extremely high failure rates due to them not being designed for combat environments is completely acceptable. Military hardware usually has a long vetting process. That includes a rate of failure determined by some statistical analysis. To make a combat safe drone that meets that failure rate and is light enough to be easily man portable and have a useful range, let alone fly, is apparently not an easy task. Bringing ad hoc equipment into a battle is one thing, being issued bad equipment is another.

No, it is I, Mario! @A Cat?

While the discussion of the space program of any one nation will be rife with political undertones, let's try to avoid making statements that run afoul of any of our forum rules. And also, remember we're just a bunch of space nerds on a forum about little green men, stop and pause before posting a heated reply.

If you click the magnifying glass in the search bar in the top right, and then click member search, you can dig through the member names yourself to see what's in use or not.

Because you have linked to an imgur page, not a pic. Right click each pic and select "copy image link" and then paste that.

Moved to GamePlay questions.

At the very least, FF adds a huge amount of depth to the game. Adds a bit of character to each kerbal.

And so you have, and so have we.

I figured. But considering your English is far better than my Russian, I won’t hold it against you.

So, there really isn't any alloy that could be considered "common cutlery metal." Things that have a variation of the common "stainless steel" markings on them probably have above average chance of being forgeable. Adding heat helps even if you can't get the metal to glow. Consider the question. As a machinist, my professional advice to you would be to whack it with a hammer till it’s the shape you want. You’re making an improvised tool, not a production run. Don’t bother worrying about work hardening or anything like that. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. Without knowing the exact metal it was Made from, I can’t tell you the best way to work it. But it’s a spoon.... into an arrowhead. Spoons were made from a number of materials; steel, stainless, silver, lead, pewter. Ok, let’s say you really really want to turn this spoon into an arrowhead. Call around to your local scrap yards and ask if they know who has an X-ray Spectrometer. They may not have one, but they’ll know who does cause they have the occasional need for one. I have no idea how much this will cost, as I’ve only used them in house, but they have been loaned out at times. Most likely if you can find one, $20 to the tech running it might cover you. So now you know the exact alloy the spoon is made of. You can the either google it to find out the working properties, or you can again call around and find a blacksmith is willing to do a day class for you and have you learn how to make this arrowhead from a spoon the right way. I do think, though, that historically most metal arrowheads were cast and then sharpened on a grinding belt/wheel. Might be wrong on that. @kerbiloid I believe the English term you’re looking for is “stainless”.

We have a separate thread for discussion of multiplayer. Please keep that topic there.

Now, the blip that Joe linked probably contains a lot more I don’t know about. This guy may have joined in the last 4-5 years and finally got the ship righted and forward progress being made. Then maybe he does deserve an award. :shrug: Without Hubble’s major snafu, Webb probably would have encountered something similar. Let’s thank Hubble for having a major, yet correctable error.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with good, but getting an award for “it didn’t break....yet” isn’t something I’d brag about. It was a hugely complex project, and yes the entire team deserves an atta boy for doing it right so far, but a management award?

I have issues nominating a director for a management award on a project this over budget and this late, regardless of the upcoming scientific successes.

Moved to the spacecraft exchange, where most users of Kerbalx hang out.

It has been so moved. Good luck.

Well, now I'll have to take a gander at this channel. Thanks Joe and @darthgently.

@darthgently Your thread has been merged into the Blue Origin megathread.

Overlapping threads have been merged.