Will Fawkes

Well the situation I'm envisioning having the ambassadors/representatives being human...ish looking however it kinda ends at 'head with tow eyes, torso with four limbs' looking like us. they clearly can't pass for human. Maybe hints at common ancestory or past dealings that would explain the sorta kinda has the rubber forehead alein thing oing on.) As for the rest. Hm. Part of the situation i have painted is it's somewhat clear the visitors are here for a specific job rather than bringing enough ground forces or ships to have any sort of plans. And that the delegates/visitors are obviously more than one species (all humanoid, but obviously not human or unable to blend in.) They'd make a few things clear in terms of any technological exchange. They are not handing us FTL. We can't just be handed everything on a silver platter til our own back yard is cleaned up. There had been a few incidents of landings in the past, but generally individuals rather than attempts at guiding culturally so earth and the cluster of systems around it had been declared off limits to give growing space and to keep outsiders from moving in as the next god-king. Roswell. Don't know. Wasn't us if it's real. Please don't ask again. As for the 'fugitive' I'm still corridinating/idea bouncing on how the'd act after crash/landing.

Another one of those 'I'm working on a book' type things guys. Granted we're all nerds and not politicians but I'm sure the question has been asked at least once or twice. 'if ET phoned in from somewhere close enough we could answer back and it's easy to tell it isn't a hoax what would happen?' IE Ship in orbit (which orbit I'm not sure but close enough for near real time (Meaning at furthest lunar.) Not liking the idea of even a two second pause between things but if you're trying to keep people from looking up and seeing a mile or so of spaceship (WHo'm I kidding space is flipping huge, most people wouldn't notice anyway.) Not ure how important the reason for them showing up would be but let's go with 'lighter and softer General Zod here: 'One of our people is roughly speaking 'here' and we would like to collect them as they are mentally unwell. All we ask for is that you keep your own people away in case they become violent and we will compensate for your cooperation and any damages incurred.' And, unlike so many aggressive aliens in scifi it would be a genuine agreement. Granted they wouldn't negociate FTL away, but sitting the major governments down and offering up better methods of harvesting energy would probably buy a ton of good will and have people bending over backwards to comply so long as it isn't looking like prelude to invasion or something. The trouble is I'm not sure how the first couple hours would go after contact has been established and confirmed. I've watched the vsauce video on the subject (vsauce tends to be pretty zonking awesome) but still. Ideas? Aliens already in orbit and at least sound willing to be peaceful about things with the outside chance of technical exchange going on (what they'd get is probably culture/entertainment in nature. I'm not saying we don't have anything they wouldn't want but the chances of it being technical are slim so go with what's unique to earth. Us.) The other thing is in a situation outlined above where an alien government/group is asking for help and apparently going through diplomatic channels. What kind of criminal charges could be leveled against someone harboring their target? If it escalates to violence that's more cut and dry assault/use of deadly force/etc (assuming 'they' let us deal with the offending persons instead of demand using their legal framework.) Fantastic situations so i'm trying to give at least a small touch of plausible feel to it all.

KSK, thank you. You've managed to make a game where explosive failure is not only expected it is a point of comedy and turned it into a thing that leaves a lot of us wanting to know what will happen next. You're doing great.

I'm not going to rush you KSK. The level of writing you've given us is quite entertaining and makes for a compelling story.

Ahh the same problem I think every writer has; knowing what you want but not a bloody idea how to get there. THe other ones are: You know when I write it out it looks a whole lot less awesome and (while armflailing) I have to do WHAT? and the deadline's WHEN?!

Awsome. You want to have landmines, some of the most deadly and terrifying weapons on earth for the fact they maim thousands (per year) and deny otherwise useful land because clearing them is expensive. And you want ot put those things into space. I personally think that's a terrible idea 'smart' munitions or otherwise because intentionally sending up something into space to explode and send all kinds of fragments of itself is just... well... exasperating the space junk problem we already have. Edit: a statistic.

KSK; you're an awesome writer. Everything so far is feeling like it belongs and is natural.

While it may seem contrived both Jeb's crew and Rockomax get setbacks at roughly the same time keep in mind the sheer number of failures in the early space program, especially on the russian side (America had a lot of failures. Spectacular failures, but they were all public. Russia didn't publicize it's failures unless it had to. Image and politics.) Rocketry is Hard and both groups are under public spotlight.

Ahh yes the Ford Nucleon. Thanks for reminding me of that heap.

All I hear is quack from this thing. Plus where's the door? How do you get in or out? Storage space? Anything?

Venus lander is pretty well impossible since even if you could make the physical structure of it able to survive the pressure and heat getting the electronics to do the same isn't happening. Best we can do with currently understood technology is land something there and have it beam back stuff for a few minutes before it fries. I would like more things around the 'interesting' things in the solar system too, but I'm not sure how the radiation belt would agree with hte idea of stuff in orbit around Jupiter. Someone that actually knows such things able to help out here? Personally? Focus on figuring out how to deal with long term habitability in space (using centrafuges/rotational based fake gravity, hydroponic grown foods, etc) Go to Mars (because it has a ton of water locked away and c'mon we've been wanting to go since before nasa existed.) Get a bigger better space station made using inflatable materials (Those are viable aren't they?) That'd give you more space and segments don't have to be metal tubes. Lunar Observatory at the south pole. Manned, unmanned Doesn't matter. Even if it's unmanned but has the facilities for humans to go there 'just in case we need to make repairs' or as a space tourism package would be nice. Plus I'm sure construction, dialing everything in, and all will take awhile. It'd be easier to send four or five guys up there then just send stuff on auto pilot right? Have we done a cost analysis of mining asteroids? IE take those near earth 'doomsday' rocks, nudge them a bit so they're in orbit, and pick them clean of useable resources. Speaking of. Increase the 'find bigass rocks that will kill us' budget.

Inspired by Scott Manley's reuseable space program?

I'd figured it was an unmanned probe because they'd mentioned it earlier, or at least I'd taken it that way since you've established this is less a set of co-workers and more a family that's grown together ever since things started, so a casual 'hey let's go grab drinks and hit the beach so we can look at the problem a different way tomorrow' just... didn't seem to gel with the idea they'd lost somebody. Ergo. Probe or a non-payload rocket test. Then again simple test wouldn't have explained the audience so failed munshot. And don't feel bad for the long pauses between writing. I know how hard it can be when wanting to post the next section of something on blog that nobody reads. Can't imagine how you feel with half to most of the forum waiting at the edge of their chairs for the next tidbit on this thread. Hat's off to you man. It's good work.

How... did you derp that badly, and where are you?

Here's hoping they don't have the same problems America and Russia have had with things just going poof and not making it there. Spacecraft are expensive and it'd be nice to see India join the space exploration club, if only to make people like my stepdad go 'wait what? India? The hell did that come from? We're getting lapped by freaking INDIA?!'

Alright then. Making a couple assumptions: Each ship is of a roughly standardish design (docking ports, similar engines, or at least everyone has archived copies of the 'original' engines in library even if they or their predescessors had made improvements over time, a root language that is learned/accessable even if neither ship actually speaks it day to day anymore.) Now for the specifics. This is all just me planning right now so feel free to jump in. The point of view ship (Let's call it the KGS Manley) pulls in after fifty or eighty or however many years into a star system and finds signal traffic pointing at other ships, or maybe just one ship, within a year's travel time based on their own engine performance backed by the fact the transmissions are in (Basic/Common). There's excited rumors, First time since the Manley was built that they've had contact with another ship. From there probably going to have the story branch out depending on what the other ship is like (Yay CYOA writing software! So much easier to write with/for when you aren't having to constantly put 'go to page x'.) Frontrunners for first contact scenerios: Monogender population (either women, some amalgimation of the two genders, or something.) Robots (tending to a sleeper ship, sent out on their own, or 'evolved' descendents of one of the older generation ships.) Metahumans (people with different traits making them possibly not quite human (able to process sunlight and CO2 for a little extra energy (wouldn't be MUCH but still,) different physical features, blending of animal and people (not nessicarily petting zoo people, the additions could either be subtle, internal, or only detectable at a genetic level.) Dead (nobody home and hasn't been for ages. just a ship on an automated course.) Each of these would be short stories with minor internal branching, but the major split would be what the relate-able to us ship is actually contacting.

For me? Tempted to say 'The Internet' because it took every nation contributing to get into the network but I don't know if that would count as one project. Otherwise, the pyramids. Given the egyptians dind't even have the wheel and only had a touch and go understanding of engineering, geometry, and only had copper tools to cut limestone and granite with....

It's still outstanding given you're a back yard hobbiest. Even better realizing you used off the shelf parts. I mean just look at it. That's Jupiter. You're able to see details on the cloud bands.

Even with the omission s of Jool Trojans, oort Cloud, Other star systems, and all the timeline you outlined alone would be pretty awesome.

Very much owe me a new laptop screen... oh wait no I'm good... I think. Just need to take the whole thing apart. Nice use of the promo video still frames.

I like Jeb's managment style. Bill sings? Eh it works. Added chapter to the ODT I've got on drive.Figure a bunch of other people are doing the same. I'm not doing any real grammar cleanup just... Hording for the moment.

In general lack of feedback or commentary outside of what you get from hunting people down and sitting on them while force feeding your manuscript down their throat is disheartening. It saps your desire to keep going even if you actually like riting because that fear creeps in that you're hounding up the wrong tree and even if you write 'for you' when you post somewhere publicly accessible there is an expectation that it'll get some small amount of traffic and hopefully some feedback. Not getting this just plain kills any momentum you had Source: I've been writing off and on for years. Just not anything KSP related.

Congrats dood! Soon as I get my hardware situation sorted I'm going to try helping with making things insane.

To the forumites that took pictures of Jupiter: Might not be that good when compared to NASA images but consider that you're taking pictures of something that takes light anywhere from sixteen to thirtyish HOURS to get here. That is to say you are seeing details on a thing that is hundreds of millions of miles away. I call that extraordinary.

Could be hte original colony/ship started off as a mining vessel that slowly processed the asteroid belt, Kiper belt, and so on into useful productand slowly built more like itself to either continue processing or since enough crowding had happened to cause a large enough population to go 'you know what? we want to move.. Out There'. Though really all a world shi pis is just a colony with propulsion and a means of gathering fuel and materials.