lajoswinkler

Thanks. I won't, I just take it slow. It was very efficient to launch it this way, and I like orange color so...

We had an almost cloudless sky at my place and around 56% of maximum eclipse. I've taken more than 70 photos so now I have to sift through it. Most of them are crap so it's gonna take a while... Dip in insolation was quite noticeable, although not near 1999 when we had like 95% or so and day turned eerily dark. I hope none of you watched the Sun using useless filters. Perhaps all these clouds over a great deal of Europe saved lots of people's eyes. There was more people informed about an eclipse than ever in the history of the world and that means more stupid cases for ophtalmologists...

Depends which ones. Some can survive, some can not. Ionizing radiation in Martian case works more indirectly, by "priming" the ground and making it pretty darn oxidative.

finding organics =/= life Also, how much? Traces? Should be a normal thing. Wake me up when NASA finds stromatolithes.

My bet is that there is still something we don't know about matter that doesn't allow singularities to form. I've always imagined a black hole to be a very stuffed ball of totally exotic matter surrounded by event horizon, photon sphere, accretion disc, etc.

That would be true if Mars One was an endeavour that could give a decent guarantee of crew survivability. Thing is - they would die very shortly there. I don't think you have a grasp on the whole seriousness of this thing. We aren't capable of sustaining a simple biosphere. Not in a lab, not on Antarctica, and certainly not on Mars. Going there with the intent of never returning means you will die in few months. It is a 100% certain thing. You could bet on it. You would not live to old age. You would die shortly in front of global Earth audience.

No they don't know the risks. The mission would be 100% certain suicide. No sane man wants to kill himself over this. Therefore either Mars One is using insane people to make money or it's influencing sane people into killing themselves. Both things are illegal in most if not all countries in the world. Certainly in USA. If you use words or actions to push a person into committing suicide, you're a criminal. That's why this whole thing is absurd. It would be stopped by the law very soon after any remotely serious actions begin.

Indeed, the thing works because some of the momentum-carrying fluid is escaping the system (unlike the scenario where a sailor pushes the sail using his hands), but applied to landing on celestial bodies is absolutely a total failure. It can't work.

Problem with this animation is that it accounts for free water on Earth's surface and total water in Europa, so it is essentially highly misleading. Earth contains a lot more water than Europa, but most of it is trapped inside of it, highpressure-stuffed in magma and crystal lattices of lithosphere's minerals. Hydrosphere and atmosphere account for only one part of the total water content.

2D thing can't exist in 3D space. Remember, 2D is surface. It's not a sheet of very thin metal floating around. It's surface. a*b 1D is length, and not a very thin stick or string. 0D is not a tiny ball, but a point. Let's say it's where something is. A position. Your hypothesis is correct, yes.

There is no need for having HD video being streamed live. It's not even possible because the bandwidth is way too low (I saw something like 100 kB/s for Dawn and 2 kB/s for New Horizons). Distances are enormous, remember that. You can only have data trickling. Decent part of it is reserved for telemetry. It's not even necessary to have a video stream. There is nothing moving there so that you could justify such expense. But true color images, that's a totally different issue. It's not Dawn's problem. Dawn already sends photos made through various filters all the time. It's the people in NASA that are too lazy/stupid to realize that few more man-hours spent on taking that data and making a true color image is what, in the end, drives their budget. All they need to do is sit in front of a computer and spend few hours working with an image editing software. One man can do it. This passivity doesn't surprise me. NASA has a history of very poor public relations management, unlike SpaceX which streams the crap out of their every launch, even video from LOX tanks, for god's sake. NASA can't even properly stream their launches without having gaps in the transmission or the stream collapsing at the moment of launch.

More RAM will help if you have a 64-bit operating system. Although KSP (32-bit) can't use more than 4 GB, if you have only 4, some of it is reserved by your operating system and programs running in the background. If you install 4 more, KSP will have 4 GB all for itself. No more creating virtual memory on hard drive. You will definitively experience an enormous surge in computer speed. KSP will load a bit faster, but what is more important - upon exiting you won't have to wait for all the stuff in the virtual memory to be transfered to RAM. Occasional crashes will turn from 10 minute agony into a few second nuisance. So yeah, install an identical additional 4 GB module and you'll be a lot happier with your computer performance.

Their plan is not optimistic. Optimistic is when you have a decent chance of success and you hope you'll succeed. This is pure lunacy. Even if money is somehow magically gathered (it won't), it will end in death. 100% certainly.

I'm not sure if I have seen them last night, but I've noticed a faint, deep red glow low on the north where we usually don't have any light pollution. It was not cloudy. I couldn't take a photograph of it. Maybe it was not aurora. I really don't know.

Judging by the preview images it looks nice, but I'm not installing anything that requires this amount of private data. Why on earth do application developers require these things is beyond my understanding. I never install such things. I could understand the need to reveal crude location data (country, city) for statistical purposes, but device ID and call information? My photos? Some applications even require device and application history. Gestapo would be proud. If you remove these, I will gladly test it. Until then, no way is this entering my phone.

I must say I agree with you. I'm not into Jool system tampering. It's already a pretty populated place. You took the words out of my mouth. OPM is very stock in appearance. It does not add wackyland worlds. Perhaps that's its biggest appeal.

Rhea doesn't have an atmosphere. There is some incredibly weak water outgassing on it which is dissociated into oxygen species and CO2 molecules probably formed by the reactions of those species with surface tholins. Those particles leave Rhea, not forming any stable layer. It's often called an exosphere because it's similar to our exosphere. Rhea's surface probably has better vacuum than we can create in our laboratories, and the number of particles per unit of volume is similar to that of Moon. KSP can't simulate vaning exospheres at all (not even close), that's the problem...

It depends. 100% totality - safe to look using regular pair of eyes. It can even be watched using a small telescope (small objective diameter, large magnification) without filters, but that's kind of playing with luck. Unless you know exactly for how long the totality lasts at your place (down to a second), you can't be sure for how long you can watch it. What if you don't know, and suddenly the Sun starts peeking from Moon's limb? I'd do it if I was absolutely sure what I was doing, otherwise not. The reward could be this. Corona, chromosphere and prominences aren't shiny. In fact they are very dim. I think even full Moon has greater magnitude. diamond ring - glancing using naked eyes is ok, staring is absolutely not. Using a telescope - absolutely not unless shielded, just like any other phase of eclipse. Photosphere is visible. Baily's beads - I wouldn't even glance. Glancing with squinting, yes, but it's also playing with luck, as the photosphere is becoming increasingly visible. It's like diamond ring, but several of them therefore more danger. It's like looking at arc welding. It doesn't hurt because the overall retina exposure is low, but it will cause damage because tiny parts of retina get bombarded with Sun's fury. other phases - not even squinting and glancing. For all intents and purposes, it's like the Sun isn't eclipsed at all. Only proper filters can be used.

Did I read that correct? We're getting a comet? I hope it will be highly eccentrical one. I remember Ascension from Planet Factory. It was difficult to rendezvous with it.

Yes, that's the one.

Great deal of ship's mass goes on the station that will be left in an orbit around Tekto, therefore some of the power generating equipment must be transfered. Job for engineer Bill. Setting the half decayed RTG units to the cryonics module. Next part of the plan is to do a direct transfer between Slate and Tekto. That's why Kerbals are still sporting the shield on the ship. It should take some 727 m/s to accelerate enough to catch the atmosphere of Tekto. Meanwhile on Kerbin, Ministry of No Better Things To Do has decided to launch a set of tiny landers for the newly discovered satellites of Urlum: Polta, Priax and Wal. It's a hastily built probe and it will be amazing if it survives. It won't reach Urlum before Kron 3 crew comes back home.

This is so fabulous!

Watched it. It could've been a lot better. The idea is so great, but Blomkamp failed to produce a powerful enough story. It's a sentient robot and the dominant feeling of the movie is disgusting filth of the Johannesburg gangs. Except Chappie and his creator Dean, no one there is likeable. Not even Yolandi. BTW she and Ninja can't act. It made me kind of angry because it deserved much more. Character development is very poor for both Chappie and others. Also, dealing with a robot gaining full sentience was so poor. It's the crucial thing and it has been fast forwarded. Go, watch it. It is not bad as the reviews say (31% on rottentomatoes, come on?!), but I bet most of you will leave the cinema with a quite bit of feeling of incompleteness. The basic rhythm of the storytelling is there, but it's not rich enough.

I do. That's the fun part.

Centrifuges are the best. Update. After separating from the descent stage and excruciating maneuvering to lift the ascent one by rolling around the hill and spending precious monopropellant, Kerbals have finally ascended from Slate. Unfortunately, a serious problem occured. During their surface EVA and fooling around and trying to set the lander upright, Kron 3 moved away from their latitude. Waiting a whole Slatean day was out of the question, so returning to the ship became a matter of life and death (TAC) and a potential disaster. Not even Jebediah was happy about it. While coasting to the apoapsis, Bill installed one fresh RTG unit to fill the depleted onboard battery. Last braking required almost 60 m/s and the bipropellant tank was depleted, so RCS had to do it. With only few units of monopropellant left, the lander managed to squeeze in between the ship and heatshield. Jebediah using onboard port camera to dock. Engineer Bill strutting the ship back. Resource and waste management began.