Kulebron

Yes, external seats for ascent and nuclear vessel. Someone had to do it earlier or later. Great job.

What are those big poles for, and what are the cables between them for? Capture in case of abrupt direction change?

This is incorrect, because you assume light behaving the same way as in 3D, and no distortion. Meanwhile we do perceive sound waves from beyond corners and make a clean picture where they come from. Our ears are point receivers, and sound waves come from a, roughly, semi-sphere. But our brain can transform it into a picture, guess the distance and even understand what happens beyond the corner. You also can have a picture of where the sound was moving in 3D (like you can close you eyes and still understand where the speaker turned their head when talking). And I guess if light could bend around corners better, we'd perfectly understand that and have an anequate mind picture of 3D space, even though our eyes have a 2D image. So if you could have similar mediums in a 2-d environment, you'd be able to have a 2d picture of the surroundings, and 2D side shooter is a good representation of this.

For some years I don't notice any difference in the UI from software upgrades. But when I tried Ubuntu 13.10 on a 2005 laptop, it could barely breathe. A tremendous amount of overhead is generated on the way, and older stuff not getting cleaned up. In Ubuntu, the sound system has always been a mess, and with years the mess only grows. It was ALSA, then came PulseAudio to make one standard for all, and it hanged on ALSA, but did not push it out: a lot of programs still need it, you can't throw it away, but PulseAudio is used too widely to get rid of it. A lot of software has been growing extensively for the sake of developer ease, but I think this proliferation fails to kill old and ineffective stuff, or force improvements. In the late 1990s hardware finally could play video, and in 2002 any PC could play HD with its 1.5 Ghz. But now programs freeze when anything that's not a browser tries to use network. I saw this in Win 2000, and 15 years later nothing changed. In Linux, if one program uses one audio API, and another program takes the other one, they tap each other. When Skype makes sound, video player has hiccup. No developer gives a heck. I read stories of programmers developing games for Dendy platform in 1980s. The story was exactly the same as with mobile games today. Most stuff was written from scratch, and on every platform they'd start from scratch. We pay a very big price for that in terms of reliability and smooth operation. Do you remember a dumb phone ever freeze for several seconds and not responding like smartphones do every day? Some did work slowly, but they were working at the same pace. Smartphones hiccup daily, even worse than desktops. I waited till 2014 to buy one, but they are still unreliable. They do have a convenient camera, I must say, it's really atractive, and that's the deal we get: killer features but huge gaps. I'd actually vote for freezing the platforms for a decade, and letting programmers cover their gaps, and stop makers from competing in useless features, but rather in ironing their products. And I'd let hardware just miniaturize, so that it were more portable and probably foldable like paper. Cluster computing is out there for ages, and it could be possible to split the big "spade" phones into 2 objects: a necessary phone with minimum things, and a big paper-like screen to read docs and later maybe develop to allow editing them. (I think, one-finger text input on mobile platforms is a huge step back.) P.S. Or maybe if I were god, I'd freeze battery capacity: "No bigger batteries tomorrow. Learn to use those you already have."

The first computer I touched was a Soviet mainframe computer, made entirely on domestic (made in USSR) hardware: several TV sets and keyboards were connected to a wardrobe-size box. You could play multiplayer games like over network. The OS was domestic, and non-purpose software was rare and very simplistic. Programs were stored on big hard drives (50 cm in diameter). But there were also amateur computers like Spectrums, and in 1990 someone published a game code in a journal. (It was PC XT, but Internet was still not available.) Later in 1990s we got an 486 at home. I stopped following box PCs hardware in mid 00-s and finally switched to laptop in 2010. Now I work as a programmer and lag in hardware a bit: still have a good laptop (and a big screen at home), not interested in smartphones. Meanwhile my friends (architects) have big boxes and big smartphones and tablets.

I was too young to see it on the news, I remember some TV news from 1987, but not earlier. But in 1988 I watched the launch of Buran live on TV, that was fascinating. In 2012 I read Richard Feynman's book and his report on the investigation, and that was quite a revelation. He also had a strong opinion on LEO science: (quoting as I remember it) "they fly and make experiments, but there are no important results".

I've been in mountains, saw these rocky formations everywhere, on ridges 500 meters high, in depressions with very little water flow. Rocks do crack just from uneven heating and cooling under sun. This would be even more unlikely on a planet like this. An earthquake from a big enough meteorite hitting another side of the planet could shake this mass of fine stones, and make it go down. This also could as well be a flow of stones in the very moment of crater formation.

This guy got trapped.

I guess, more than half of population stay at their own or parents' home. If anybody starts being mobile (goes to (another) city to university), then they spend quite some time before having their own. As for rent, it's mostly apartments. Houses should be rented too, but as I know, they also offer some very basic set of furniture, and TV+washer is a must. I can't tell the amount, but in my block, among 16 apartments I know for sure 2-3 are for rent, maybe more. In city center, the majority of apartments are rented, because the rates are very good and tempting. - - - Updated - - - Wow, that's interesting. Can you tell in details how licencing works?

I see. Here furniture and equipment is a must. You have hard time finding a client with an empty apartment. All those who rent apartments are very mobile, nobody wants to carry any serious stuff. When I lived with a gf, all our posessings (including heavy winter coats and shoes) fit in 4 suitcases. Well, since there's no way to edit poll after it started, we'll have to let the poll reflect this kind of vision.

Right, but when you rent you most often get a TV set along with furniture, washer and vacuum cleaner.

I got interested if smart people across the globe have TV or not. As I learned, many of my and younger generation (30 and younger) just don't buy a TV set when they separate from parents. In the university dorm nearby, I don't remember anybody having it, and they have no IP TV either on their local Ethernet. I got a new apartment 4 years ago, moved there from a rented one, and I just did not buy a TV set ever. Now I have an Ethernet provider, and they offer IP TV, but I rejected the option in my contract. So when I'm doing home chores, I turn on internet radio and listen to improve foreign language (Portuguese). I recently got tired of listening to music, and can even do things in calm. When I visit parents' apartment, they have TV turned on light another light bulb. They talk and don't notice it, or do some "autopilot" things, like knitting or yoga, near the TV set. Meanwhile, I can't even talk comprehensively when the TV is on. I got so used to having no distraction when doing home chores, that even muted TV distracts me now. If sound is on, it becomes impossible to talk. This is amazing, but I'm happy with my choice. I still get all the news I need over RSS feeds and internet radio. Do you guys have stories on this?

This particular dinosaur should really be close to modern reptiles or birds. But also, from what I read, there were two branches of dinosaurs: amphibias and reptiles. The evolution tree that we saw in the schoolbook (based on 1960s or 1970s material) was: fishes => amphibia => reptiles => mammals \=> birds But more recent studies show that there was and still is a huge difference between mammals and birds, and it starts from the separation of amphibia and reptiles. fishes => amphibia => mammals \=> reptiles => birds Amphibia use water energy cycle, have soft skin with glands. Reptiles use acidic energy cycle, need very little water, and have hard skin cover. Same distinction continues for mammals and birds: mammals use water, birds use acid. Studies show that many dinosaurs (like Diplodocus) were amphibia, not reptiles.

How do you distinct between "rendesvous with a station" vs "move station towards the ship+asteroid"? If I have a claw in the station, I dock the ship+asteroid with station (ships back has a port) and then I just unplug the ship's claw, turn the assembly around and capture the asteroid with station's claw. What's challenging about it?

As for equipment to live off the ground, I think the best way is to get a minimum viable base there, either robotic or this very manned mission, with a 3D printer, and try using materials from there. Print parts for mining equipment, get it to work, print processing equipment, and so on. Manned mission has a great advantage there, because trial-error cycle is much faster than if you send a complete machine from Earth. I'm still wondering what valuable things can you get there on Mars and how to make a base self-sustainable at least economically or at least biologically.

Didn't they make a working prototype? NASA has a test stand that imitates low pressure and low temperature. There's no problem to test the prototype there and then do a reentry survival + work after reentry test on Earth. The only problem that stops this from happening is the lack of political will. I agree with Zubrin that should there be a program to do this in 10 years, things that have to be done would start to be done. I think a big problem with NASA is that the "big challenge organization" can't live further after the goal is completed, and NASA is doing a different thing, it does many long-term low-profile and quite lean missions like rovers. So it just should be another organization to do manned Mars mission, and NASA should not do big missions like constellation at 1/10th effort. The way it goes now, it will take forever to do any big mission, even to the Moon. If I were US tax payer, I'd vote to reduce NASA budget, make it focus on long small missions, stop programs like Orion, and create a new organization to do the big mission.

It's ISP is ten times (3200 / 320) bigger than that of chemical, and almost equals to ion engines.

1. Local activism (construction regulations, cities for people, etc), which includes writing, public speaking, translating materials from all around the world. 2. My favorite toy is 1KWt hammer drill. When I need to hang new things on a wall, it's a holiday! Working with wood and concrete (both drilling and filling walls) is a great joy for any man.

I like how it's shaped for the sake of better safety and low speed maneuvrability. But there's even more original one, not so successful though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_M-15_Belphegor It reused Yakovlev Yak-40 jet engine and was intended as a crop duster. In order to spray chemicals, it was reusing air from the engine through pipes rather than heavy and lossy transmissions. Wings were from Antonov An-2, which guaranteed low stall speed and great controllability. Unfortunately, jet operated at such low speeds had excessive fuel consumption, too high even for the subsidized Soviet agriculture. Many say it's ugly. I see why, but don't see why original purpose-made shape is worse than same-looking airliners or fighters.

Latin domain names are terrible when you have several names for each letter (Latin, English and some learned German) and also people can think of Cyrillic counterparts, thus you need to explain every letter in a latin domain. And we don't know English alfa beta charlie code. Cyrillic domains are pure salvation.

What's the application for it? Everybody says there's no market to launch big things in space. I'm not very informed on this project. Feeling proud, but the big launch tower and this expensive project make me also think of how lean Orbital Sciences are.

Just 2 cents: I personally don't care if that person is punished or not, at least this is a single offence. What I care about is whether I can contribute and not waste time in a derailed thread. I use SkyscraperCity forums, and there the policy is like that of New York subway: bad stuff (like insults) gets deleted quickly. This lets good contributors feel their worthness, and trolls always have an uphill battle. Whatever they do, threads continue, and most users don't even notice small incidents. I'd like to see the same approach here. Totally agree. By the way, I've been to political forums, they are disgusting.

Recently, there was a thread about Russian economy collapse. On the second page, there comes kerbtrek, I assume, a native English speaker and insults me of being brainwashed, then starts a flamewar by overly judgemental posts, while having no expertize. Moderators come and close the thread, then even delete it completely. I admit I took part in flamewar in 1 post, but even if I hadn't, this thread would have been locked and deleted anyway. I, who contributed more than an hour writing descriptive posts, feel indignated. This means that any thread can be deleted if there comes a troll. Then I see no reason to post anything substantial that changes readers' perspective, because controversial threads, that deal with harder topics, are forbidden here by default. It seems that we are only allowed to discuss "sandbox" topics, where everything is fine. But I see enough people who can deal with controversy and stay politically correct. The only problem with these discussions is that many posters are judgemental and feel experts on topics they know by cliches only. Very useful discussions are happening when people post about themselves and ask. I think, bad behavior can be dealt with faster moderation and trolling/flaming cleanups. Can moderators, please, explain what are the difficulties with this now?

I suggest to anyone asking why not SSTO, install real Earth mod and try making an SSTO rocket with a payload of 5-10 tonnes. Not even plane, which is harder, but just a single-stage rocket, and get it to orbit.

@hoioh: your ship looks like Interstellar. I like that my design is being developed further, good luck! Copy this text and replace album/spoiler titles: [noparse] [/noparse]edit: OMG! I see you have a powerful rig. My laptop crashed when there were 10 kerbals outside.