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Do you know, I have no idea what I was thinking there, I know about tidal forces...brain fart. I think I read something somewhere about one failure mode of a snapped space elevator cable has the cable whip itself into an equatorial attitude but thats a whole other kettle of fish and I must have made a wrong connection.

No worries at all! If you're looking into DCS, it wouldn't have escaped your attention for long. I didnt know there was KSP support !! But then I havnt had a proper KSP binge in quite a while. I almost 100% use it for DCS, but it there are some first person games that support it too and it works really well. Theres no reason at all why it wouldnt work with your monitor, all it is is an intuitive tool to move the 3D viewpoint, it would work with any monitor. Sure, hit me up whenever.

Oh thats a little less stressful! Most of my tips dont apply! lol!

General tips for presentation: If you will be extensively using KSP footage to demonstrate and accompany what you are talking about, keep the footage to a necessary minimum. Snippets of a 10-20seconds per talking point should suffice. What you want to avoid is turning your presenter-led presentation into just you fiddling with video controls and the audience paying more attention to the screen than what you are saying. Unless you are actively narrating what is being shown, try not to talk and have moving video at the same time, people will find it harder to really listen (ie: dont have a running video as a "backdrop" whilst you talk, talk *with* the video, then stop playback and continue with the presentation). *** In giving ANY presentation, keep technological props to a reasonable minimum. This is because technology ALWAYS fails during important presentations and the very last thing you want is to have your beautifully researched presentation go to the dogs because the local WiFi, or intranet, soundsystem, or power supply or the projector or something failing and you give one of those "presentations" which is just 20mins of you bent over a laptop whilst everyone chats amongst themselves, then you lose your slot and all your work was wasted. If you are going to do something elaborate (like show KSP footage) quadruple - quintuple - check everything works. Then check it again. Have backup files on a memory stick. Have another copy saved in your emails. Have a backup computer if possible. Be prepared to give the presentation without your fancy-schmancy multimedia showpiece. Ideally, do the presentation off one computer/laptop, and have the media/projection controlled from another. Practice. Practice playing and stopping the video at the appropriate points in your speech (that part is also helpful as general practice to help you give a smoother presentation). Practice working the projector. Double/Triple/Quadruple check what cables you need and how they need to be connected. Try and get a chance to have a go with the equipment beforehand. Sounds paranoid doesnt it? But you would be flabbergasted by the frequency with which this sort of thing happens, even when given by people who should be -who ARE - competent with computers. Something always goes wrong. I've seen professors in quantum physics do the "spend ages leaning over a laptop whilst we chat" thing and it happens time and time again. *** Perhaps that is all a bit much for a classroom, but presentation (which is largely a communication skill) comes into play a lot in the higher-education and professional world.

No worries at all. Just one more thing - If you make the leap and want to upgrade - unless you are a helicopter enthusiast, get a TrackIR before rudder pedals. (TrackIR is essentially "VR lite", but its loads cheaper, about the same price as mid-range pedals)

There is nothing else to look at, if its a jet-age military sim you're after. If you're desperate to fly an F16, theres Falcon: Allied Force, but whilst it is a top-notch sim, and community-supported, its a very old sim and the graphics are extremely dated. In fixed-wing, not much at all, they'd be handy, but you dont need them. You miss them more in helicopters, a lot more, but I dont own pedals either and it has not handicapped me too much in the Ka50 (although the Ka50 has several fly-by-wire systems that help and it has a contra-rotating design which removes a lot of rudderwork in helicopters - Im not sure how I would do in a Huey). A Warthog stick goes a long way, I'd say you've got a half decent setup for DCS. You can do without the throttle as you can replicate almost all functions in other ways. Best thing about DCS? The variety of very rarely-simmed aircraft that are available. (And, naturally, the extreme level of sim fidelity)

It seems difficult though. The wire experiences thrust perpendicular to its axis no? How do you turn that into useful thrust without pulling the wire out of alignment with the field? And if its long enough, its going to want to form a ring-segment aligned with the equator just by virtue of mass and gravity.

I love the Ka50, just getting to the point where you can take off and land without dying is far more satisfying than doing the same in a fixed-wing! And if you try really, really hard, you can even make it point in the direction you want it to go! Gotta say though, not having a set of rudder pedals is a huge handicap.

My theory on the next steps: A non-exhaustive selection of things I liked: ***edit*** Im going to go out on a limb, and guess that the KSP forum is quiet today because everyone has been googling things related to Infinity War?

Or glance at the 2nd post?

This was a pure moment. I could frame this thread and put it on my wall

You want to make a low budget adult movie? XD

Its not even that good of a deal...

I'd like to see a story about a planet that has totally succumbed to a zombie infection, 100% conversion, after fatalities. Then at some point, a zombie is infected with a virus that "humanifies them" and can be spread via contact (or whatever) to other zombies. A reverse zombie movie. Near the end, you might have a huddle of zombies taking shelter in a basement, one of them notices a patch of healthy skin on another and, terrified, they all crowd away from them and the "waker" is like "FUUUUUUUU(DGE), WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUU(DGE)" and in the final moments, the last zombie looks out of the basement window and the street outside is covered with pink, naked humans, moaning and groaning as they come to terms with their new existance. OK it needs work, but there something there

Disappointingly, I think it would go the same as any new F1 team. What do aerospace companies or NASA have that Ferrari, Red Bull or Mercedes dont? Its not like F1 teams are in the habit of hiring mediocre engineers/scientists/drivers or cutting corners on their cars to save costs. The technology in current F1 cars is cutting-edge already and its not like NASA keep a hoard of secret super-special technologies like fuels to make cars 20% faster or aerodynamic techniques that cut drag in half. Alright, I mean I assume they dont keep such a hoard... If anything, aerospace/NASA would suffer from a lack of experience in building F1 cars - for example, what do aerospace companies know about racing tyres or kinetic energy recovery? Im sure they can develop their own, but experience counts for a lot. I suppose given no time limit, that they'd be able to be competetive though, they would certainly have access to things like wind tunnel facilities and supercomputer time - but it would be a mistake to assume that other teams dont already have these things.

At some point this starts to be more like designing a new vehicle from scratch, than "lightening" a Saturn V. If you modernise every aspect of the Saturn V lunar shots, you probably get something much resembling the current proposed designs for new Moon missions.

I had this poster when I was younger, loved it:

The book is WAY better. I especially like the solution that is presented -

A bolt is something you fire from a crossbow and a screw is what boats push themselves with, what's the big deal?

LOL I am certainly familiar with that particular paradox.

Plain white paper reflects significantly more light than a mirror.

@LordFerret If anyone is coming here for information about DCS wondering how good it is? Simply put, its the best military simulator on the market, bar none, even the free aircraft. Although you want to choose one of the premium modules for the full benefit. Choose carefully, there are definitely "easier" and "advanced" options!

Anybody watching The Expanse season 3? Its not really "bad scifi" but there is a scene where a person is taken out of some kind of cryo-suspension pod. Its got some bells and whistles on it like a window and some other junk, but when they close it, it's super, super obviously just one of those rooftop luggage containers for your car. HA! Look at this, someone else spotted it and got a good screenie (I love the internet!):

On my comment on "females": I didnt write the rules, and given that its a highly complex and fraught subject, I dont want to attempt to try and put it in writing (Ill make some kind of mistake and horribly offend someone), I can only say I kinda get it. Does anyone really want to die on this hill? At the end of the day though, there are only very few things you cannot say, as long as you treat people with appropriate respect and dignity. It was advice to be taken or left, Im fearful of derailing the thread with a messy discussion of gender politics. And so is "human with internal genitalia" but that would get you some strange looks, and very few dates

What the visual effects supervisor had to say on the dark elf spaceships from Thor:The Dark World, brace yourself: According to Visual Effects Supervisor Jake Morrison, the Harrows, the spaceships used by the Dark Elves, are powered by black holes: "A black hole pulls in all directions. You stick a box around it, but if you poke a hole in one side of the box it would pull in that direction. So effectively, if you strap a craft around that, you have a propulsion drive, which is kind of an impulsion drive."