radonek

What if you don't pipe that extra fuel directly into engine, but top-off center tank, using it as a buffer? One reason for using asparagus that I don't see mentioned is that it allows me to use beefier center engine. With center tank full, there is less of a TWR jump through staging, without need to throttle down. I know that bigger engine is not called for at LEO missions, but for heavier cargo at TLI or farther burns…

This is mostly fearmongering IMO. Any AV needs to do dig deep into dark places to do it's job, that's just how it works. I mean, yes, using Kaspersky is not wise. But given the amount of zerodays floating around these days, ANY software originating in hostile country is suspect. And people running critical infrastructure should be well aware of this.

Module Manager (!) Navball Docking Port Alignment Indicator - really should be stock RCS Build Aid - ditto KER & KAC & Transfer Window Planner There are many other great mods but these are the ones I'd miss most.

As you wish: Planet destruction: https://eldraeverse.com/2012/05/26/the-burning-of-litash-5/ Star destruction: https://eldraeverse.com/2016/10/17/ultima-ratio-imperium-stellarum/ BTW how about information weaponry? Combat memetics, basilisk imagery, that kind of thing...

... and some other platforms use free memory as IO cache.

I don't think this is just the mods. I use more or less same set of mods since something like 1.2, but memory usage is MUCH higher with current version.

11:10 win to linux ratio? This does seem kinda biased :-)

Just like the old days...

@Spacescifi NSWR also needs fissionables, so it's close to Orion as far as industrial production is concerned. But might be better if you are after self-sufficiency. AFAIK all you need to replenish NSWR propulsion bus is to mix up fissionables, water and maybe some moderator additive. Producing Orion charges is much more complicated process as mentioned above. And IIRC it also requires significant amount of tungsten. (Can nonfissionable uranium be used instead?) I don't think it's that easy. Orion drive thrust is limited by pusher plate design. More powerfull charges will likely result in bumpy ride and breakdowns. But it is true that modifications of existing Orion ships to increase thrust would be simple compared to most other propulsion methods. And less need for cooling is definitely a huge advantage.

Like @Caerfinon says, youi need a second landing for your third kerbal. Consider it an opportunity to visit another biome.

Seriously? I mentioned it mostly for the sake of completeness and expected to be laughed off. This just blows my mind. Also the process you describe is neat, if that plastic can be manufactured in situ, it might scale somewhat.

AFAIK heavy elements like Uranium tend to concentrate in planetary core during formation period, so that is where I would start. I bet that 16 Psyche holds a significant amount. If I can't get my hands on piece of planetary core (read: metallic asteroid), I would look for planetary body big enough to undergo at least a bit of differentiation process, but small enough to dig deep into. (Ceres? Sedna? Dunno if suitable candidate actually exists.) Last resort would be scouring small bodies that did not participate in planetary formation at all. These should be relatively richer in heavy elements then planetary crusts, but this would still involve processing huge amount of material. I see this as quite feasible if you have civilization that already process these for other usefuls, but certainly not as small scale ISRU operation. One other thing that comes to mind is filtering Uranium out of water. Now this would obviously be incredibly inefficient and not break even energy-wise, but if you assume some external energy source, it is only way I can think of that would involve a "machine" and not whole industrial base. Just drop filtering complex into seas of Europe or Enceladus, busy yourself for a few decades (!) and then collect small amount of fissionables (and other useful stuff too). Might be good for something like unmanned interstellar probe. Don't you think that going all futuristic kinda defeats the purpose? Main advantage of Orion was that it could be realistically made with something like sixties tech. With sufficiently advanced technology, it would make more sense to scoop hydrogen from gas giants for a fusion torch.

This is just how celestial mechanic works. But you don't have to wait for perfect Hohmann transfers if you can get boost from other bodies. Sometimes you even don't want to (Moho).

Batteries themselves. IIRC Cpt. Nemo came up with some chemistry to create single-use chemical batteries from oceanic resources. It's described in the book, although not a word about actual production. I guess Verne did research on plausible chemistry, but did not run the numbers on power density.

https://eldraeverse.com/2018/12/23/things-to-see-places-not-to-go-11/

I am not talking about target selection. I am talking about weaponization. Anyone who can move rock to Earth orbit can also push it to collision course. Much less potentially destructive industries are heavily regulated everywhere and for a good reason.

If this is viable, can they even be allowed to actually use it? Like, on a real rock? Because pushing actual asteroid onto near-earth trajectory does have certain implications.

Yes, this is serious objection as far as baseline homo sapiens are concerned. For how long that remains relevant is a different question entirely. Let's just say that Spider Rose would disagree and leave it at that :-) These are "only" engineering problems. Not easy ones, but I'd say way, way more approachable then "how to conjure orbital energy out of nothing" which is what you need for planetary industry to be competitive in interplanetary trade. I'd kindly like to bring to your attention our own history. Not only was transport in age of sail on similar time scales, but communication was too. I dare to say that managing commercial activity over inner solar system is easy compared to what East India Company had to deal with. Bunch of different stuff here. First, bootstrapping is definitely huge problem. But it does not affect my point - if you can't set up extratrrestrial industrial base at all, it does not make hauling stuff up the well any cheaper. You just remain planetlocked. Second, if I take off-earth industry as given (which OP essentialy does) I don't care about space-to-earth trade. If Earth is net beneficiary, colonies are only that much stronger pulled towards independence. Once they became independent, it's interplanetary market what matters. And sitting at the bottom of deep gravity well is not exactly win there. So again, you are either planetbound or nonplanetary, with intermediate period of home planet dominace being relatively short and not economically stable. (If it were, Indies would still be part of British Empire). That is not even a serious objection. It may be something of a bar to get over, but that is bootstrap problem again. And way easier to solve then economy. Our industrail processes are going through serious redesigns all the time, for instance look how iron smelting went from cities full of dirty sweaty wage slaves to bunch of suit-and-ties in a tidy control room. I don't mean that packing everything up for zero-g is easy, not by far. But I don't see any reason why it could not be done at all. And there is a rub, there are usefull processes that can't be done in gravity at all.

No it does not make sense at all. Show me a serious project where majority of resources is provided by Earth. Even earth-to-orbit space elevators count mainly on extraterrestrial resouces, and I don't think you can get more earth-skewed then that. This is because they realize what logistics is about - if I can get to LEO cheaper from Vesta then earth surface, this means that Vesta is for their purpose (time insensitive cargo) closer then planetary surface. (And if you think that time is of the essence, just look how much cargo nowadays is transported by sea and how much is airlifted.) This gives earthlings a head at providing personel and light or time critical stuff, and even that does not extend much beyond Moon. It is of course quite possible (in fact, probable IMO) that any early economic effort will bear name of some earth based corporation and/or be governed by earthly government. But industrial might behind it will be extraterrestrial, with all the centrifugal political force brought on by that. It will become independent sooner or later.

Planetary chauvinisim strikes again. Belters outmatch Earth in resources by far, they will sooner or later outproduce it and without need to crawl up the freakin well. they can outcompete it so easily it's not even worth a try. And just you wait until they start producing suitable megastructures and outpopulate it. Face it, unless you came up with Star Crap magic propulsion, planets with deep gravity wells are irrelevant. Cradle worlds may trade in intangible assets as long as they are superior in culture or research, but that's about it. If we are talking logistics, what does need for hi-twr booster with 12km/s deltav mean for logistic chain?

Piece of my take on the matter:

Now that we have crew liquification covered, let's think about ship itself. If you just bolt pusher plate on ship that is not designed for it, you are essentially undergoing low frequency pogo from hell. Sooner or later, your ship will start to shed pieces and break up. May take five rounds or five hundred, but break it will. Heavier ship will IMO just make stress greater. I can imagine it as emergency way to show something heavy out of way with a blast or two, especially if you dont care much about damage to moved object. As a propulsion, no.

I say wait until detection techniques allow as to pick system that actually looks like Kerbol.

@kerbiloid 16/Psyche :-p To the topic, I like the idea of self-healing lichen, but I'd grew it on outside, to prevent dust abrasion and act as a kinda whipple shield. For radiation, habitable part could cower under water shield. Most other parts don't matter since they will be zapped by drive anyway.

So true. I learned a lot about subject from tutorials and good people around here. But I did not really understand it until I parked a lab at low Mun orbit and started gathering science from all biomes.