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No problem, we'll just melt the core (yeah, right).

What about pedals (like rudder pedals on an aircraft)? Do any orbiters have them?

They already have a surplus of chickens... in their kerbonaut roster.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-02/chinese-spy-suspect-pleads-guilty-to-violating-nasa-rules.html

Drat, that was the concept I read about in the past year or so, but it doesn't seem like it. I seem to recall a solution had been formulated for releasing something into the atmosphere that would actually 'cleanse' it through chemical bonding, rather than darkening the sky. Does this ring a bell to anyone? Things that are wrong when things are good, have a way of becoming a necessity when things go bad. I'd rather put up with an ice age. Research shows that hotter temperatures are more inclined to make humans go psycho.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3

I've had a plan to do just this kind of thing for a while. The only thing I REALLY wish we had access to though, is radial ion engines.

Wouldn't be the first time China took something from NASA...

Is that ship actually using all of that solar power for anything? And yeah, more OT, I've been wondering for a while if the rules have changed with regard to asteroids, since they weigh a heck of a lot more than anything any of us have ever needed to push before. With that much mass, is the most efficient engine still the right choice, or are we better off using engines that are more commonly used for the mid/upper atmosphere?

Flashbacks of Rainbow Brite & the Star Stealer.

If a Space Race does happen, I rather doubt the U.S. will even think about getting involved. These days, the government seems pretty content in letting the rest of the world out-perform in every other way, and NASA hasn't exactly been rolling in the dough lately.

Jerry Goldsmith. Alien, Explorers, and a whole slew of Star Trek films. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaT-JX5r8i8 John Williams's score for Space Camp is nice too. If you want something a bit more creepy and ambient, John Serrie has a lot of good music for that. He sometimes uses actual space noise for samples too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZab4eoaaGo

Yep, I was thinking about this when I planned to assemble a craft in orbit, and worrying that I wouldn't be able to configure the controls afterwards.

Dvarvaro, retro-styled art is fine, the only thing I can say more about it is, be consistent. If you want a retro game, have all its elements look retro. Or have it look super-modern. As I said in one of my posts, I was very distracted by how vastly different the space launch appeared, compared to some of the other scenes. Something in the look and feel of the game needs to be streamlined, at least in my opinion, otherwise it will feel like a collection of mini-games. At the very least, use particles for flames. The space vehicles have it, so I can't see any reason why candles and fireplaces shouldn't. Effects go a long way in making a world feel more alive, even if the geometry is simplistic. The environments in the video were simply breathtaking in spite of the blocky minecraft terrain.

Just trying to plan a slingshot with a single body is tricky enough. I can't imagine the amount of time NASA must have spent planning the trajectories of probes designed to go on any kind of "tour" of a group of moons or the whole solar system.

...trying to send some kind of a message?

I've been wanting a mod that adds an element of retro-80's sci-fi image enhancement to the view of the planets for a while now. Something like the screens in the original Alien film. ((skip to 3:20)) Three-dimensional RADAR mapping on landers.

It definitely won't get done today, but my first COMPLETELY INSANE sandbox project is starting today.

The odds of catching a meteor at the precise moment the shutter moved though, and not once but twice?

Huh, I never realized that the first shuttle launch and the first Soviet manned launch were the same day. Fate must've been in the mood for coincidences. NASA planned to launch it on the 10th and had to reschedule.

Until the crisis is over I'll be regularly putting food on the Alliance trade, for any nation that desperately needs it. Roughly 100 units per day. And... you can send money? How? I haven't seen that option anywhere.

Yeah, I kinda wondered how much trouble it was to implement the ability to toggle the flag on and off for any piece of fuselage. It may not have been hard at all though. I don't "think" you would need to make pieces that fit each part, like you're suggesting. With the way UV mapping works, all you're doing is adding an extra layer to the texture, and it should just be flush with whatever part you slap it on (the only drawback might be that you'd get a mirror image on the opposite side). And if it couldn't be done that way, the parts could just be made procedural, so they automatically bend to the surface of whatever you're applying it to. I'd prefer they NOT be 'parts' though, as a lot of folks are already struggling with lag issues when building complex rockets. More parts will only aggravate it further.

I think the problem is, given that it's supposed to be analogous to our own moon, it has a disproportionally low albedo. The surface seems a lot darker than you'd expect to get from a lunar landing. In fact, it's borderline Death Star gray. I still occasionally do a doubletake when transferring away from Kerbin, and then it's, "Oh, right. That's the Mun." Looking at it from the surface of Kerbin, it made me think their stone age must have been REALLY dark until they learned how to make fire. It actually makes sense that their eyes are so huge.

Yep. So you're more or less seeing glorified concept art. In professional circles ever since the idea of proposals became a thing, this is what you would get if you were a producer having an idea pitched to you (with the addition of budget plans, flowcharts, etc). Typically very little work would actually be done beforehand, because nobody wants to spend tens of thousands of hours in development if there's no chance at getting the necessary funds to finish.

A handful of games have done this type of thing now. A perfect example is ST:O where after you have designated the name of the ship, you actually get to see it printed on the hull. In addition to being able to slap a flag on random parts, the name of the vessel should also be an option. Having the name on the fuselage would just look so bloody cool.