Kerbart

One of the problems with all these projects is that they take forever, which is why there is ample room to cut into their budgets and cancel them. Orion has made its first flight this month. After eons of development. And the first manned flight is not expected to take place before 2020! That's six years from first unmanned flight (way into the program's development) to first manned flight. The Apollo program took eight years from announcement to reaching its objectives. Why does everything take forever now?

Aliens, obviously. I'm surprised NASA let is slip through the cracks, as this is normally hidden by the usual zionist/illuminati/masonist coverup

While a nuclear thermal rocket engine does not require fuel (aside from the radioactive material in the reactor which would last longer than the lifetime of the engine), it does require propellant unless a major breakthrough in physics is made. While you don't need a fuel/oxidizer combo KSP allows some "cheating" by substituting regular liquid fuel/oxidizer as propellant as you would have very limited choice of tanks for your nuclear engine (the jet fuel one only, I'd guess). But as long as Newton's 3rd law stands, you will need to expend some kind of propellent; your “fuel.â€Â

You mean the SLS program being shut down?

Thank you! You retroactively and remotely installed that on my computer, didn't you?! My excuse is that KAC is so easy and intuitive to use that I never had to look at the manual. Shall we keep it at that?

Hope for the best. Fire engines to slow down as late as possible. You might want to use F5 to quicksave.

Throughout history, the willingness to embark on large projects like these has been fueled by a feeling that if we don't do this, our existence as we know it will be threatened. Whether it's the col war, imminent meteor impact, looming invasion by the evil space aliens from Arcturus IV or whatever... the willingness of societies to take on large projects and finish them in the shortest time possible is only there when there is (real or perceived) grave danger: The hoover dam (controlling irrigation and preventing another dust bowl, at least in the Nevada/Arizona region) Putting the first satellite/hamster/dog/monkey/man in space The Manhattan project Landing on the moon Delta project Aswan dam It's easy to add other big projects to this list. None of these projects would have seen the daylight if the motivation had been “wow, wouldn't it be awesome if we did that.†They were all driven by a desire to reduce the loss of life, prevent starvation, feed the nation, intimidate enemies. The motivation of each can be described as starting with “If we don't do this, [something terrible] will happen†So yes, I'd like to see us go to Mars. Which will probably be a 30 year project. What I don't want to see is that apperently there is a reason to go to Mars THIS decade. Because that would really, really not be good.

When you look at delta-V maps, Mars (with aerobraking) isn't really that much further away than the moon. Of course you'll need to carry a lot more mass than Apollo. Extra resources, larger crew accommodations, radiation shielding... but I doubt that puts it out of reach. As everyone mentions, it's mainly a matter of having the willingness to spend the resources on it. And we might consider it a good thing that the willingness isn't there.

The best argument I've ever heard about the moonlandings NOT being fake came from XKCD. source: xkcd.com

Well said Megan Fox! And if you were there it's “do you have a video to prove it†and if you have the video it's “that video is fakeâ€Â

In a game that simulates rocket science: “I demand that xyz is changed so it becomes trivial. I don't like it that I have to check things right now.â€Â

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself, my father always said. In POV-ray there are some scripts to procedurally generate cities. I'm not saying that the building should be generated procedurally in game, that would probably require too much calculation power. But why not divide the cities in city blocks, have people deliver content on a per-block basis like Kerbin City, and have the rest filled in procedurally? It gives you large cities right from the get go, and better quality content as people fill it in, which is more attractive to do as you're not creating a building in an empty block, but rather improving the existing city. Just throwing this in the air here. By all means shoot it down if it's stupid, I won't be insulted.

I like the way you think!

While technically a fork, the OP did not present it as a fork. "Now managed by USI" and posting "I am now maintaining this mod" in the original mod threat create a suggestion that the OP had "taken over" the mod. Telling a highly respected modder that he should give his fork a different name only feeds that suggestion. I am legally fully entitled to go to a public playground on a hot day and start taking pictures (with a big SLR) of all the little girls running around in summer dresses. Should I do that? No. It's a terrible idea on many levels. If we want this community to become a bureaucratic nightmare where everything moves around in molasses, then yes by all means we should stick to “if you legally can, let by no means common sense and courtesy stop you,†but personally I think we’re much better off if we use some restraint and are critical about our own abilities, instead of implicitly demanding that we get rules and protocols for everything.

To be honest, when rereading that threat, it appeared to me that “the community†in general was trying to be very polite and tactful. It seems to me that the relying solely on the legal status and not on the (lacking) merits of taking on the project was what made the discussion spiral out of control. “Because I can†is rarely a good argument and bound to be perceived as rubbing the wrong way by some. Here's what the OP could have done different: Present the project as a fork with a different name (“Dirt Cheap Rockets: A fork of Bargain Rocket Parts†comes to mind) instead of using terms as “taken over†and “now managed by...†Instead of listing the fork as a fait accompli in the original mod threat, start with asking if anyone wants to help in maintaining and keeping the mod alive. If you have no experience and the mod is popular, questions are going to be asked about your qualifications. A lot less questions will be asked if you asked for volunteers and everyone remained silent. Answering concerns of the community with effectively “hey I'm going to add a new part but I’m clueless on how to do it†is probably not the right way to put doubters at ease. Showing a video of the new part, and asking the community for their “blessing†to add it officially to the mod would have been a better way to go. And maintenance would be fixing problems in the first place, and only then (after having gained the confidence of the mod users) starting to add new parts. It's a lot easier to convince people that you can do something by showing that you can, than by saying that you can. Do we need rules and protocols to prevent an accident like this? I don't think so. What we do need is, when “taking over†an orphaned project, is respect for its legacy, tact in communicating your intentions, and a realistic self-assessment about how others will perceive your skills and suitability to take on the project. Remember: perception is reality. It doesn't matter how qualified you are in maintaining the mod. What matters is how qualified the community thinks you are. That requires respect, and respect is usually earned, not given. In my eyes, the hostility in that threat was largely self-inflictedâ€â€and preventable.

Not really. The word station is derived from latin statio which means "to stand." It would basically refer to a place where people/animals would stand on duty while waiting to receive jobs to perform. Waiters stand at a station. Horses stand at a station (I don't think it's a coincidence that the word stable has the same stem but I'm not a etymologist). The firebrigade stands at a station. The "non moving part" of stationary does not necessarily refer to the station itself, but to what the subjects of interest do at a station: standing (idling/waiting, etc). The station is where you keep things standing and they are stationary. A space station is a place where space ships dock; they don't orbit around it but remain in a stationary position with the station.

Aside from spaceprograms being so expensive that they vet the crap out of everyting, accidents can happen of course (cue diapernaut). But, let's focus on the purpose of the arrest: to secure the suspect and make sure you will have him/her in custody for a court case. Now, where would said astronaut go? It's not like they're a flight risk. You just request that he/she leaves with the first upcoming crew change (which was likely the schedule anyway) and problem solved. Of course there's the option that the suspect refuses to board the return craft. But people have to sleep. Can then be sedated. And duct-taped to their chair. I doubt it would ever be a real problem. Arthur Clarke had a funny short story where the Brits on a joint Anglo-American-Soviet mission decided to stay one day later on the moon to clean up experiments, as it provided a loophole for a tax break. I guess that's as far as it'll go.

Well they'd only be obsolete in that scenario. And I doubt that Squad would make a move that would make all struts obsolete. What would be next? Boosters?

No it doesn't. I just created a simple craft with a quad adapter, four t-800 tanks, and another quad adapter at the bottom. When you look at the craft file you will see that only ONE tank has a link to the quad adapter, and the bottom quad adapter links to only ONE tank as well (the same one that has the quad adapter listed as a link).

One of my suggestions would be to break up the fairly long paragraphs of text and add some subheaders. At the same time you can use those headers to give an overview to the reader on what's on the menu for today: In today's episode we will focus on the following: Choosing a game mode Gathering Science with your first "flight" Gathering more Science This is just an example, of course. It would make it easier for the reader to navigate the text, especially when (as is intended) they're following along with you. “Now where was I?†is a bit easier to answer that way!

I finally had a reason to use the "earth time" alarm -- only to find out that the only option there is, is the quick alarm and then you cannot set the exact time. Am I missing something or is that the only way Earth Alarm works - to have it go off one hour from now?

Are you the Mousehunt Spheniscine?

"Good" and "bad" is largely up to personal taste. The current trend towards more, bigger & better special effects (I'm talking about the effects, not their impact on the movie) is perfectly understandable. Given that, if the budget is large enough, the SFX are spectacular (transformers/godzilla/turtles), in a way it's a promise to the audience: "when you come see this movie for the visual effects you will not be disappointed." It's a lot like a fast food joint. You know what you're getting and while the contents are not phenomenal, they're not disappointing either if you adjust your expectations. Those looking for gourmet food are left out, though.

Given that parts in a ship are organized in a tree structure with multiple nodes connecting to one parent and one parent only, how is docking with two ports possible in the first place?

I'm not sure if it's mentioned before but the exhaust of the rockets is blocked by the cupola.