KASASpace

Ultra-thin, ultra-reflective. You need to harness the most light-pressure.

What if we could place the harmful gases in the atmosphere of venus deep in the crust? Bare with me here. If all the gases in Earth's crust were released, it would be WORSE than Venus. For us, that is. Of course any information pointing otherwise is welcome. Solar sails need to enter a more large usage.

I think we need a more detailed analysis. How much Dv does the first stage (boosters included) have? How much for the second stage? On the KSP wiki (is that reliable?) it said the Kerbal X has a total Dv of "6674 m/s" I'm quite sure that that's enough to get to the Mun. Now to get back.........

I was referring to the slow acceleration of the sail. However I posted earlier: And if you accelerate during 5 months, you'll be heading towards Sedna or some other extreme orbit dwarf planet.

Some guy went to work making TWR solar sails greater than 1, however the mirrors were so fragile you could not launch them into space. And solar sails are designed to use the light pressure as thrust. So it has to be a "super-mirror" that takes in a lot of light. "We" don't have anything to counter lasers, except for a super high gravity field but chances are the enemy has the ability to calculate where to aim. Of course we could use two ships, one is a decoy, that orbits out in front of the other ship, and takes the laser blast. Now, assuming that the laser will need a cooldown time, we could easily do that. (yeah, it's expensive to get it there) smoke is used to block light of many kinds, and lasers could possibly be "jangled' so they lose their focus.

Well, considering modern technology it would probably be a not so super weapon yet. So mirrors (and because solar sails are mirrors) might help in this instance. However you are correct. In the far future though......... good luck using mirrors. Admittedly it won't help much.

With a solar sail that big, it would probably be able to keep itself stable. although I would recommend something Cosmos 1-esque, in that it can rotate different sections of the sail.

It just has to be less dense than the atmosphere below, and that means HUGE. As towards how to get there, solar sails are actually economical. For example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos_1. 100 days accelerating, less than 5 years to Pluto. And no rocket fuel wasted except for the launcher.

Are we forgetting those solar sails that are capable of "thrust to mass" ratios of greater than 1. And could you be more clear? I didn't exactly understand all of what you said. You made it sound like they "power" the laser, at east in how I read it (sorry about that). And I'm quite sure that Solar Sails are "super" mirrors, effectively the best your'e gonna get. But we would something that disperses light........... either that or is strong enough to absorb it. Smoke could work.

That's what I was thinking. Are there any stable Lagrange Points between Venus and the sun?

Yes, but the sun is powerful, and is used for Solar Sails......... Lasers are just extremely focused, less erratic.

Well I mentioned them because of the fact that they can actually use lasers to be propelled. It's an ultra-thin mirror, so the light-pressure (it exists!) is used.

Okay, let's please not have a billion people prick apart my posts, now. How about something along the lines of solar sails? Not a solar sail per se, but something that works on the same principle.

You would want the sun to hit the sail, but it takes some computing and waiting to get into the right place at the right time. Not to mention the right attitude. But whatever. Only one side for most designs.

Well, let's see. It was cheaper. Lighter with close to similar capabilities. no Oxygen tank exploded no thruster packs sticking out the list goes on Obviously. I was referring to level of reliability. As in, no Oxygen tanks exploded, and no cabin fires (deadly ones, which ALL would be deadly) occurred. The stuck thruster from Gemini 8 was fixed, the weird thruster stuff from Gemini 5 was fixed (go Gordo!). And the launch vehicle, which wsa KNOWN for problems, never (save Gemini 6) had problems.

Perhaps it can be "remote-piloted" from Kerbin? You know, like most IRL rovers (at least they tell it where to go)

my view is that you do this: 1. Right click "upgrade-able" part that you want to upgrade 2. Select "upgrades" in the tweakables 3. a menu pops up 4. there are two "folders", one for upgrades that can be applied, and one for research-able upgrades. 5. You click on the upgrades you want (limit depends on tier, like 2 upgrades for that LV-909 on that rocket) or 6. You research an upgrade, they become available as you go and cost a small amount of science and money (10 science, 50 space-bucks) Any thoughts?

Yes but by Gemini 12, it was better than Apollo. All the bugs ironed out, save it's comfort problems. It was light, too. Weighing at most about 4 tons. FOUR TONS. It was the exact diamter of a Centaur, so you strap one on the back and go for a ride, heh heh.

Yes, but I try my best to keep it vanilla....... shame, it was the best spacecraft, better than all. It could have GONE TO THE MOON! But thanks anyways.

I wish there were good ways to replicate it in KSP.

Ah Gemini. She was beautiful. It was like a plane cockpit. You could do anything in that craft. Dock, rendezvous, and even (by Gordo himself) ghost rendezvous. Farewell. The....... best spacecraft EVER.

In those sources it countermands what you said. For instance, Mercury, according to you source, is 2 meters long, rather than 3.3. And Soyuz is 7.2 meters, rather than 7.5.

But they're slow. As said by wikipedia: "The total force exerted on a solar sail may be around 1 newton (0.22 lbf) or less,[2] making it a low-thrust propulsion system, similar to spacecraft propelled by electric engines." So, if you want SPEED, get a BIG ONE. A REALLY BIG ONE. Maybe triangles.....? Of course there isn't a citation, but it only can do so much........ would take forever to break orbit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail

Well, the coupler thing has been addressed. Onto staging, I think it should say "Do you want this staging set up?" in a window after you click launch, and it shows you the staging setup, and if you notice a problem you can fix it. If you want to go ahead, you click Ok and if not, you click No.

Well, you "solved" the heating problem, so, how to solve all the other problems. Let's figure out what we're dealing with first: 1. High Atmospheric Pressures 2. Still pretty hot 3. Toxic gases 4. Acid Rain That's off the top of my head, so if there are more please enlighten me. Possible *solutions* 1. This is (I think, probably wrong, so feel free to correct me) primarily caused by the heavier elements in the atmosphere, so something that filters them out, such as a lifeform, is a good idea 2. Really hot, gonna need to cool it down somehow, and radiation cooling isn't the best way............ can't really freeze it, comets would just evaporate until after a few hundred years (could still be wrong) 3. These are most likely the heavier elements/compounds making up the atmosphere (IE sulfur) 4. Rain is probably a result of "Acid Lakes" but still could be wrong. Best solution is to take the acids mostly away from areas where they can "evaporate" Of course, I would rather colonize Mars, but whatever. BTW, as Venus is the hottest planet, I would be careful no matter what you do.