meve12

Someone needs to write about this.

Make this any engine at all. The tires of a car pushes the asphalt backwards...

Is there going to be a downloadable mod for this? Soon?

So we're not going to see footage of the impact? Darn. At least we could have learned more on the surface composition from the dust plume if it was on the other side.

That is an odd way to put "arse over tea kettle."

Just a thought; could you retrofit the Tindalos crew section with a Galatea after the first mission?

I think I will, then!

A ship like the one described above would probably point its' radiator away from the sun, for two reasons: to prevent solar radiation from heating the radiator, defeating its' purpose, and because to prevent being blinding by the sun, IR scopes on lookout duty would be in low solar orbits, looking out. The magsail can twist on two "extension cables" to any heading necessary, so orientation is unimportant. The nice thing about a magsail is, as described in the article, the fact that it's a propellant-less drive allows for some weird maneuvers that reaction drive ships would be hard pressed to emulate, such as hovering or gliding at a constant altitude but at suborbital or escape velocities. Though space weather would give it some trouble.

I've read through all of those too. You know what they don't mention? Magsails. Four websites (and Atomic Rockets includes it in the engine list, even) and not a single mention of magsails for stealthy, no exhaust plume movement. Or directional radiators, or any power state other than full combat stations, or how many sensor outposts would be needed to reliably cover an area, or any mention of decoys more advanced than silvered balloons, or the use of the local star or planetary body as a background to dump heat(away from the star, of course) in order to avoid being detected, or even the difference between stealth(less likely to be detected, usually facilitated by proceeding in a secretive and cautious manner) and total invisibility(the inability to be detected whatsoever, which, as the detractors correctly if misleadingly argue, is impossible.) Seriously? One wonders if they rejected the notion going in and came up with reasons why later, to counter the inevitable counterarguments.

I don't know the mathematics, but... The basic problem is that since you always have too much waste heat, and the only way to get rid of it in a vacuum is to radiate it as IR light, you end up being an IR emitter with a non-emitting background, with little to no clutter to sort through. If the enemy has IR telescopes that are any good, you're definitely going to get spotted at some distance even without the engine. That being said, how close you can get and not get spotted can make all the difference, especially if there's any bodies you can make a burn behind. Don't need to close within a kilometer if you've got megawatt lasers, see? Or reasonably fast missiles or boarding shuttles.

Would the biologists particularly care if you tossed the waste into the gas giant?

I think Jupitev is better to say.

Forgot about that.

Shoot. Is the final reset imminent?

So, why are there no acrobatic VTOLs in real life?

How are you going to attach the centrifuge habitats? On the side, and spin it on its long axis? Or on the end, like a flying pigeon?

Nice ship! What's the main engine on the propulsion unit?

Whoa, calm down there fella.

He didn't say a hundred. All we need is something like 6; enough to cover the entirety of the Mars surface. The problem here isn't transmitting the signal to Earth, it's how to do so with a planet in the way. So you need relays sats in Mars orbit to bounce the signal around the planet before you can transmit to Earth.

The Tempest's a pretty cool looking ship. Is the Javilen going to get better armaments? Maybe missiles from BD armory? For that matter, is the Tempest going to be armed? Maybe point defenses and lasers?(laser point defenses?) What's the crew compliment for those ships?

Water ice has oxygen in it, is what he's saying. He's not referring to whether life exists, by the way; he's expressing a concern that there might be free oxygen on Titan, which if mixed with methane and given a high enough temperature...

I don't think those are aliens, Tape.

Depends on how much thrust can be achieved. If it can replace booster rockets? Expect a big boom as space suddenly becomes much more available. If not, it's still a boon for stuff that's already in orbit, but the boom wouldn't be as big unless some other boost solution becomes available.

The hyperlink is labeled #2, not #3. Might want to fix that.

I seem to recall that Foward mass detectors do precisely that.