Will Fawkes

Pretty much just me wanting to see if anyone's doing anything hereabouts with the devices. I had a few projects in mind for mien but i was unlucky enough that mine went blewy and even with as cheap as they are I haven't had funds to get a replacement (mostly because i want 'replacement and-' because Reasons.)

Been sending probes out to try working on actually rendezvousing with the Mun with no luck so far. Advice?

End of Day 2: https://imgur.com/a/fiXw1wj Not the most elegant thing in the world. I am no Scott Manley. However. There ya go.

Honestly what I've done today isn't that spectacular. When getting to apoapsis I pointed sas prograde, then did a twenty-second burn. Waited til it came up again, did another, and repeated the process till periapsis got to where that was shown. Probably not the most efficient use of fuel, but I damned near did all that with my first stage. I likely could have gotten to the Mun with the second stage if I didn't mind it being a one-way trip. HM... Gonna try seeing if I can do a fly around the mun with that rocket after giving it a little more fuel in the upper stage. I have Science to farm and need those photovoltaics.

I'm planning on getting Mech-Jeb and docking assist later on, but since I'm at the ABSOLUTE base starting out I wanted to at least get to orbit before adding assist mods.

OK so new guy questions: How do I make the assembly process put things semetrycally? (yaya stabilizing fins.) Suggestions on making a science satilite now that i have the probodyne, science jr, and such? Was considering putting a probe up top, a cargo bay stuffed with batteries, antenna, a science jr, a couple chutes, heat shielding. Yet when I tried that NONE of the staging worked. Also all my rockets keep acting all like.. bottle rockets. ;0-; Turnso ut rocket scence is hard!

After years of dealing with decade old hardware I finally have something that, in theory, is in the 'recommended specs' end of things. So a friend gifted me a KSP steam code and I'm poking around so even though the little guys will still explode they might do so less frequently or in more interesting ways.

Anyone been compiling the chapters into an eBook friendly format?

That is an excellent point.

Possibly this deserves its own thread, but it's part of the same reason this thread exists. What goes into making rocket fuel, and given the idea I would have to justify facilities either being tediously cared for, or rebuilt, what would be the simplistic to use that would both be able to get me into earth orbit, and would be stable enough to use for a long duration mission?

Eh, it's a game mechanic I was trying to search for a way to actually explain. Hasn't come up, and with that information in mind it probably won't.

Well that last does bring up a fair point. Sending a minimal resource recon team to see if anyone's at earth is one thing. There has already been talk of prepping a second mission if the first didn't send word back after landing. However I really like the idea of 'use existing rockets as templates to send icbm's and or other smaller rockets into orbit to build a spacecraft. Keep in mind I'm thinking large scale. Hundreds of tons of material, and most likely far more than one or even two launches could do independently. Plus with intelligent systems you're far less likely to lose stuff like we do now, or at least that's the theory. Is there a doc that goes into more detail of the cargo truck idea? Come to think of it how hard would it be to make fuel? I can see ion engines being somewhat readable in orbit due to the technology still existing to service/create nuclear batteries (I have no idea on the construction or if it's even possible. However if you fail an overdrive check when pushing an atomic battery. Boom. I'm guessing that's containment breech and radiation leaks fry internal components more than *mushroom cloud* but I dunno, details are light.)

A little less condescending if you please. Not everyone does research, or trusts their own objectivity if they do.

So essentially to JumpStart Mars I'd have to effectively rebuild a nation just to have the supply lines and factories going on top of actual build times for equipment, testing for flaws, then the six months or so transit followed by aero breaking at the colony's doorstep. This is a huge job. I mean I'd figured five years, but that might be just to get the things build I need before the actual mission. The problem is how to condense that process into something interesting? I can see the milnet node I'm showing being just the biggest one left that's being aggressive, and can further cheat by stitching settlements together. Just trying to find a way to show the process without bogging down. Maybe have a between chapters newsletter to gloss over details not relavent to the actual plotline. I'd already intended on that as a blog I can post to. Sound workable?

On the one hand I am all for space as a prestige project so long as it's not 'let's arm satilites because looolololololol'. Space provides not just good peaceful 'hey look at all the awesome we can do' peacefulish propaganda, but it allows for science and advancement of home grown technologies, assuming they're not just cribbing off the Chinese. On the other hand this is North Korea so that is money that could have gone to helping a very beaten down and poor population.This isn't the US or even Soviet Russia. This is North Kores, where the Kim Dynasty has propaganda going on about how they are effectively Gods amongst Men and I don't want to support them ignoring their people.

If nothing else you could probably build a structure to achieve the same effect. My worry is if the materials can handle it or not for long periods.

Why am I visualizing the world's longest potato gun angled off the side of it aimed away from the direction the planet's spinning?

Here is what I want: I am writing a book about a post humanity earth where colonies on mars sent a couple robots to earth to see why nobody's been calling. These robots have secondary orders to try securing parts to return to mars so the colonies can keep functioning. Setting aside all the ground based problems of busted infrastructure, hostile scorched earth weapons roving the earth, and random AI trying to reprogram everything to serve them, I want to know what it would take to get several hundred tons of stuff to mars. As for the comment about SRS rockets, look above my last post, person was talking about those along with gross tonnage/lifting capacity. I know precisely squat about rocketry, or at least I am setting aside what I think I know because pretty sure a bunch of actual rocket scientists hang out here. As for 'pulling rocket out of a museum', that had actually occored to me because supposedly the one at Kennedy only needs to be reassembled, and fueled. However even something like the falcon nine would require massive investments to get going and I expect just standing the Saturn up would be something of an achivement much less getting it in space. Five years, or maybe a decade. Either way I want an actual timeline to sorta hang things off of to make things, if not completely realistic, 'good enough' that in a world where your toaster hops around to look the world over for a piece of bread it's believable. You do raise a point on landing on Olympus Mons. However that is what the colonies are under. Each has an entrance set into the mountain since originally they were made by three different nations. So how do I get stuff there? Keep in mind they do have heavy construction equipment because how else are you going to dig in? There's also humanoid robots to do the actual handling (humanoid because 'we're sending tools for people to use. We have robots that have hands and general similar range of motion. Why not just teach/program them how to work this stuff?) How workable is 'send several craft up to make the ferry vessel that all the other stuff will be put in?' Envisioning those inflatable kevlar capsule type things to maximize interior space and provide some shielding against micrometeors and the like. Thing gets in Mars orbit, then either segments drtatch and land, or... I don't know. My notes put that there would have been an orbiting station built and put around mars that might have acted as a good drop off point and ferry, but it's not there because space got canceled due to war. Pros: The knowledge exists as do the plans . No beurucratic red tape or hand wringing about budgets. Automated factories that can be made to work night and day on bits that need building so eventually infrastructure will be put in place. Cons: The existing infrastructure is smashed. Other than isolated pockets of city states or the odd military site there are few gurentees outside of finding raw materials to work with. You will need to build everything, or failing that, fix anything that is found and looks usable. Going back to the Saturn v. You would need to check over every millimeter for cracks, warps, weak spots, or any other defects to make sure you're not putting the world's biggest non-nuclear bomb on the pad. There is no human oversight. Robots have been uplifted, but save for a few there generally won't be anyone around to give non a intuitive solutions to problems, such as reorienting craft and using the low gain antenna, or find a way around a bum Navy computer.

I was actually going for 'near enough future the hardware is recognizable' so while I can cheat a little, I was actually thinking of space x's falcon as a goal. Idea I have now is there are salvageable SLS heavies (near future version maybe getting 100 tons up as a nice round number) per launch before having to fall back on a lighter design since can't make the big ones. So say five sls-type rockets going up for BIG stuff and then having to work around smaller payload sizes. There is a moon colony and orbital support structure that can act as way station for top off, but what would the idea be: Send the big things up that end up as the actual vehicle all the smaller loads get piled into and shuttled to Mars in before getting bouncy-balled down Olympus Mons for pickup? Going American because the colonies only sent, so far as the books are concerned, one probe with a trio of robots (one from each colony) out to see if anyone was home. A few more might get sent, but Mars has limited staff and without being able to secure replacements doesn't really want to risk more than needed. Plus with an automated factory under it's thumb on earth they can just beam it designs to build, or at least build things that can build the things it wants. I wanted to avoid it looking like it's easy given we've actually lost stuff we sent up there and figure there would be similar problems. Hah. Now that I think of it Olympus Mons extends past the martian atmosphere, so turns out to not only be a great barrier to hide under but just from laypersons perspective looks like a /great/ launch site. I just remember the ISS taking what, about a decade to build? Would five years for Project Costellation* be feasible? Sure there is a smashed infrastructure, but now there's no red tape left you can't send a few earth movers over to shut up so you can get back to work. Ten years would probably be a safer bet. Have the colony go more or less into standby other than three month check-ins and maintenance once current projects to connect the three finish. *Sorely tempted to just call it Project Voltron and be done with it.

If nothing else having nitrogen or argon or some other buffer gas atmosphere would help protect colonies even if they have to be sealed so they can be breathable due to 'oh hey meteors' and allow for temperature regulation. Don't get me wrong, having rain and a water cycle and stuff would be great. However I'd settle for 'puncture in dome isn't going to cause air to rush out.' Would it be hard? Yes. However I consider it worth going to. There's enough minerals there that should allow it to be self sufficient. We just need to get the sort of funding the military has.

Alright. Colonies on Mars need parts that cannot be built on site because reasons and I basically have been nonspecific in the last story what this is. Say parts can now be manufactured. Given this is America and Kennedy is trashed. Best way to get into orbit? Even if it's a flash forward five or so years down the road as new facilities are built. I'm thinking setting is Midwest, but if need be could have the launch site moved wherever I suppose. Target is Olympus Mons and while I know there are specific launch windows to get there in six months isn't the usual wait time closer to two years? I would model this in KSP but I can't run it. No idea how much cargo can go up per launch and I have a little wiggle room. Maybe it was parts the governments I intentionally made sure colonies couldn't make home grown with their equipment so they can't break away and once they gain that ability it's self sustaining. Mars has more or less the same stuff Earth has right? Basically small earth freeze dried and no real global magnetic field to speak of. While I could just have the parts to make this plotanium device to make widgets be any size I want to give some kind of credibility to the whole thing. Important detail. Life after people. Population... Robots. Turns out a lot of the helper bots that exist, ranging from mouse catchers to assisted care droids, to smart vehicles are now self aware. This leaves a ot of infrastructure trashed so there is a lot of rebuilding. Thankfully there is an automated factory that, thanks to mars, now has plans to build things that will get the factory more space to build other things needed to make the way to get widgets back to Mars. Advice?

Maybe. I mean that would be kinda nice but I'd rather roughly the same hardware configuration with a duel or possibly even a quad core design with maybe a few more buttons to make PlayStation/Dreamcast/n64 less of a chore. Still. Even though the kickstarter was early last year it's only been getting traction this year. And I really don't want to have iteration after iteration after iteration going so fast the guys that got the first ones won't wonder if they should have held out for next year's model. That's the nice thing about consoles vs PC: platform uniformity. You program!/test for a spec and that's what it'll be like for everyone barring some kind of bad juju pissed off spirit or something. I'm personally more interested in homebrew and engine ports than in the emulated stuff. Sure I'm going to look through emulators because it's sort of amazing what romhavks exist, but come on, I like native titles. They're nifty.

Its a handheld console that made a bit of a splash last year. OK fine it was funded about the same time the ouya was so got drowns out by that thing. Still it has funding and even though there were delays its a thing. Friend of mine owns one. I've got one on order. It does console emulation ranging from 8 bit Atari up to the 16 bit era (it could do PlayStation and Dreamcast but not a lot of effort is going there so while proof of concept emulation is a thing it isn't very good.) I don't advocate software piracy but there are some interesting homebrew titles out there and hacks that turn what was commercial material into something so different it might as well be original. Emulation is a thing. Like it, don't... Its there even if all you want to do is stick to the open source/homebrew software. Ok fine it emulates stuff so what? Completely open toolchain based on Linux, has SDL 2 (though 1.2 is more stable at this point) and some other standardized libraries like python. There are also a few doom ports (odamex and chocolate are the two that come to mind,) as well as eduke32, decent, quake, and an assortment of homebrew games like powder, dink Smallwood, blockrage, open born, streets of rage remake, and other stuff being developed. The key here is its an open console anyone can do stuff for. Want to be gonzo and port abiword to it and bang out a draft on your handheld plugged into a TV with a computer plunged into its OTG adapter? You can! What about dosbox? Already done! And yes it will run the original dungeon keeper. Poorly but it runs! It has WiFi, an fm radio, tilt sensor (nice for playing decent), HDMI and av out (sorta kinda not working all the way but eh. Give it time, its supposedly almost done.) http://gcw-zero.com Main page and also leads to store links if you want to buy one from thinkgeek or other non us based retailers. However thinkgeek is your best option. http://youtu.be/SQGWEZJiSqE Recentish YouTube review. Please note most of their software is in the forums linked to from the main site. The curse of a low numbers compared to the glut of Chinese tablets.

First female Kerbin in space also the first to do an EVA. Lucky girl, and hopefully gong to get to do more for the rest of her career than be a propaganda pinup piece.

Given Nibbler arranged for Fry to be frozen in the first place it wouldn't be hard to follow his people would make provisions to make the bank just leave that account alone. What scratches my head is that most banks, at least the ones I've dealt with, have a minimum balance along with fees which should have nuked Fry's savings fairly quickly. However if the above is true then exceptions might have been made or... something along the lines of 'wait until account has x funds then start drawing from it) So you get 4.3 billion instead of 46/600ish billion.