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Countries in Red don't officially use the metric system:

These might be a bit of a stretch. The Myst series' alien worlds are created and maintained by the use of "writing" and "books". These are exploration and puzzle solving games. Then stretching further, there are plenty of shooters out there with the action on alien worlds.

Just as you can make rockets, planes and rovers in a remarkable variety; so it is with boats. Just think of a boat as a plane or rover or even a horizontal rocket; only you want to get it into the water. For me, the hardest part is simply getting the craft to and into the water without wrecking it. I usually start at the runway, back up to the shallow drop and then turn and drive parallel to the runway, to the coast. Near the shore where the incline is steeper, I turn and approach the waterline at nearly a 90 degree angle; going across the hill surface instead of straight downhill. This allows greater control of your speed and also lets you enter the water very slowly; otherwise its easy to break the boat when it hits the water. There's even a submarine mod out there, but I've not tried it.

Try the new RAPIER engines out, if you haven't yet. Yet the above advice is good. It all hinges on your design preferences and piloting techniques (including the use of Action groups). Good luck on your SSTOs!

Well, let's figure this out. Joysticks are at the top of their form when used as flight sim controllers. X-Plane is a well known flight sim which runs on multiple platforms, including Mac OSX. In fact, its even developed primarily on Macs. This might indicate that the developers are confident that joysticks are available which are compatible with Macs; otherwise their game sales would probably be a little lackluster, at least on the Mac platform, which they support. Here's a video which does two things. First, it makes it clear that modern USB joysticks are Mac compatible. Then it goes into more specifics with X-Plane and other sims. You might expect that since these joysticks work for X-Plane and other sims, that they should work for KSP. Other forum members have made it clear that they use joysticks, so that's not an issue. From all the above, you should expect that whatever modern USB joystick you choose will work with your Mac while playing KSP.

LVT30 has a TWR of 17.5 (to one). Its mass is 1.25 (tons). (1.25*17.5) + 1.25 = 23.125 so that's about your maximum lift off tonnage. Total up the tonnage of your parts in the VAB and see how your ship compares with this. Obviously if you exceed the tonnage, the ship will sit on the pad and burn fuel/oxidizer until enough mass has burned off and dropped the ship down to the tonnage which the LVT30 can lift.

Long time ago. If you are in the area, its definitely worth a look.

Welcome, PK. Glad to have you with us!

See it: Grab & play: http://marathon.sourceforge.net/games/marathon2.php See ya star side!

One of the things I will get (already have) is a bad cold.

With a plane, there is lift to consider, as well as dV. For vertical rockets, there is a thrust to weight ratio for each engine of course; the RAPIER being one of them. For it, I've approximated it on a chart. See my sig line for the link. Edit: revised the TWR of the RAPIER modes on my chart.

¡Feliz Navidad!

10. The texture file.

Watch: Grab & play! http://marathon.sourceforge.net/games/marathon2.php See ya star side!

I have to ask; do you do occasional Time Machine backups? Just making sure. Assuming not (or you have a much too old TM backup), you should get an external backup drive (like the Seagate ones that fit in a shirt pocket; 1 TB). It will set you back about $100 or so. They sell them at places like Best Buy, Apple store, Frye's; online at new egg, etc. As to how you get your partition (or selected data) transferred over successfully, I'm not savvy. I did recently replace the HD in my 6 yr. old iMac, but I was able to restore using TM. Edit: PC Part Picker in the UK looks good. What other partitions do you have? Win 7, Linux, Ubuntu?

Any number of books by Heinlein, Clarke; also Bova.

He's a member of the forums here too.

Edit: In reply to Koshelenkovv; Its a nice little design, too!

The above is good advice. Figuring dV for spaceplanes (or any planes) is like herding cats. This is due to the fact that so much depends on your design (especially regarding lift/ control surfaces), which does not enter into the calculation of dV very much (except for the mass of the wings). Besides design/ lift, your piloting style and skills are very significant factors. I've seen several and I have my own. I've seen each make it to orbit. But that's your real question. How do I make it to stable orbit? Besides the above advice, I'd say: practice.

I'm not sure how it really boils down in KSP, but from the standpoint of overall dV use in real crewed space programs, it usually saves dV when one has the separate components of surface to orbit flight, orbit to orbit, and then orbit to surface; especially when those steps can be reversed for a 2 way mission. Of course on a 2 way trip the final 2 components may be combined (the capsule jettisoning for a parachute landing, for example). To clarify: the launcher for everything (or SSTO to dock with orbiting interplanetary ship), the interplanetary ship and the destination lander. In the past, my interplanetary missions have been of the "launch that behemoth into orbit" variety. The interplanetary portion is mainly a dock-able set of fuel tanks and engines. My lander is also the command module when attached to the interplanetary ship. Once I get serious about Career mode and Science, I can see that your questions will be interesting in relation to my approaches to interplanetary travel. I find Kerbal Engineer to be very useful (and MechJeb too) for such mission design.

This is an interesting discussion, with a variety of viewpoints. I'll just add my 2 cents also. I certainly understand keeping the maximum total value of a tank relative to its volume and mass an unbreakable constant, otherwise it'd allow for something approaching "infinite fuel". I also understand the fact that a rocket fuel tank in reality contains two (or more) tanks; for the separate storage of fuel and oxidizer. Given that, its understandable that both separate values (for O2 and fuel) can be adjusted from the max each to zero each. I understand that it would be cool if we could balance (a la "stretchy" internal tanks) the O2 and fuel mix so that either the O2 could exceed its normal max if the fuel were adjusted down, or vice versa with the fuel/ O2. Or the extreme would simply be either both tanks filled with all fuel or all O2. This is simply a desire for the greatest flexibility for any particular (rocket) fuel tank. Thus I am pleased by the current implementation of tweak-able fuel tanks; yet I'd not be disappointed if such ability were extended to "balancing" the fuel/ oxidizer combination such that the tank remains filled to its capacity. Thanks to Squad, my fueled adapters and nose cones are now tweak-able. (Shameless plug: see my sig line.)

My favorite stock parts are pods (cockpits and capsules) which have IVA (internal) viewing. I also like the aerospike for the spike aesthetic and in its utilization. I like the LV-N Atomic engine for its glow effect and its practical use in space. I enjoy the shielded docking port for use on spaceplanes and rockets, for their use and looks rolled into a relatively less massive form (although the inline port has a nice animation). I like the inline reaction wheel for its stabilizing effect and the AVR8 winglet for its size and function; the telus ladders for their use and cool animations. While I've not yet made any animated parts, I appreciate the skills of those who've made them. My favorite mod parts are Mechjeb (for its light as well as its function), Kerbal Engineer (for the reel-to-reel animation as well as the function) and my fueled adapters & nose cones (shameless plug: see my sig line. Edit: Thanks to Squad, they are now tweak-able!).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerman

The lasing mass is significant. The solar panels are to collect the energy needed for the initial gamma ray laser pulse. In my correspondence with one of the authors a few years ago, it was obvious to me that he is aware of the technology challenges associated with such a project. Either way, black holes or antimatter; it might take many generations before we have the capacity to move forward in any practical terms.

Welcome. Gift your extra Steam copy of KSP to a friend or relative.