StrandedonEarth

Hmm, good point, I didn’t even see the decimal on my mobile until I read your post. It may be laziness, or it may be typing stream-of-thought, thinking “point seven” Mind you, I usually took the lazy approach to. Perhaps it’s a matter of getting the “zero point“ drilled into your head So yeah, I was thinking 7 million was pretty expensive

I knew I Should have driven through Hawthorne on our way to CSC when we went to Disneyland. But I was already blowing my geek allowance for the trip.

Hey now, not just Americans. Canadians, Europeans, and Asians too!

Same. Except I have the first week of July off, but then it’s probably 50+ hours/week until Christmas, including stats

Heading over to “The Island” to visit with family over the Canada Day long weekend. The ferry terminals are going to be crazy but at least I’ll get to see Trooper over there.

Sometimes I think society has gotten too risk-averse (especially given the perception of overpopulation), which will paralyze human space exploration and colonization. If someone wants to go to the Moon or Mars, have them sign a waiver acknowledging that it may be a one-way trip (if they get there at all) and light that candle!

I tend to agree. The original trilogy may not have had a lot of realism in it (hence the category of 'space fantasy' or 'space opera' instead of sci-fi) but it didn't have anything that really broke the suspension of disbelief. Having a planet-size weapon that can drain a star (system killer right there) and fire a massive energy/plasma bolt that splits into multiple bolts that hit separate planets throws too many error codes to enable SoD. But still, I managed to enjoy the spectacle. TLJ just had too much forced sappiness and soapy operaness to enjoy what spectacle there was. There were some good scenes drowning in the other crud.

Lol, always did, as long as the parachutes functioned

You must be thinking of someone else, the closest I've come to planning to be at a launch is hoping that by some fluke (better chance of winning the lottery) there'd be a VandyLaunch when I was at DisneyLand last year. But seeing a launch is on my bucket list; our current aspirational travel goal is for DisneyWorld in 2020 with a KSC tour. We'll try to plan it for when a launch is scheduled, but the usual likelihood of schedule slip will make that a faint hope. Yup

Does this count? To all those who have seen an orbital-class rocket launch, I'm jealous. @XB-70A, you're very lucky to be able to see all of those. @linuxgurugamer (also a lucky bum), was that the first or second shuttle launch?

I stand corrected

And Transfer Window Planner. It's not perfect, but it gets you in the ballpark. I never have and never will hold a protractor to the screen to figure out when a transfer window will be!

Unless that's all they had left...

Methane doesn't have to be refrigerated to be a liquid; it can also be stored as a liquid under high pressure (see LNG tankers). Yes, that requires heavier tanks, but thinner tanks can be buried to provide more strength. Also, since Mars is colder than Earth, the vapor pressure of methane will be lower. The methane can then be refrigerated to load into the BFS

Apply at White Sands seventyish years ago instead. No boredom there!

Hmm.... plain URL wouldn’t help as it’s a link to Vimeo. It’s they’ll version of The Big Bang Theory theme, with lyrics. The lyrics are: Our whole universe was in a hot, dense state Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started, wait The earth began to cool, the autotrophs began to drool Neanderthals developed tools We built a wall (we built the pyramids) Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries That all started with the big bang! Hey! Since the dawn of man is really not that long As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takes to sing this song A fraction of a second and the elements were made The bipeds stood up straight, the dinosaurs all met their fate They tried to leap but they were late And they all died (they froze their asses off) The oceans and Pangea, see ya wouldn't wanna be ya Set in motion by the same big bang! It all started with the big bang! It's expanding ever outward but one day It will cause the stars to go the other way Collapsing ever inward, we won't be here, it won't be hurt Our best and brightest figure that it'll make an even bigger bang! Australopithecus would really have been sick of us Debating how we're here, they're catching deer (we're catching viruses) Religion or astronomy (Descartes or Deuteronomy) It all started with the big bang! Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology It all started with the big bang! It all started with the big bang!

How does that work ? Does it, like, a skim of stories from parts of the world ? Well, you see...

RTGs are expensive and the specific isotope of plutonium for them is in short supply. Production has restarted, but it’s on the order of grams/year

“Standard orbit, Mr Kulu. “ ”Aye, Kap’n. Circular orbit at 245km” I’ve started setting my departure orbit above 240 km for more accurate burns and more time warp. Sure, I may lose a little dV from Oberth, and there’s workarounds for warp, but it’s just quicker and simpler than jumping somewhere else and back, or doing a series of kick burns. I never seem to have enough time to play KSP, so I tend to want to skip any unnecessary flatulating around. Launching the refueling tanker takes enough time as it is, and setting up the rendezvous is easier with the target up higher, IMO. Oh, well, I guess I’ll have to go those extra kilometres for that bonus unloading.

Imagine the scary fun people had before the fix that had the holds deactivated at low speed. Your lander is in retrograde hold slowing to a hover a few meters above the Mun and then the retrograde marker starts moving all over the navball. Retrograde and prograde switch places as the lander starts to rise. Hilarity ensues as your lander flips over to point at the ground...

I have no idea what the first thing I did was when I first got the game. But the first flight of a new career always seems to be the same... Flea, pod, chute, launch. Watch it twirl all around because the chute deployed when the Flea ignited....

Mostly because catching a spaceship is hard, unless you handwave up some magic tractor beams. Then comes the very difficult part of eliminating the crew on their own turf, unless you can do that without boarding the ship. So without fantasy tech, capturing a ship without getting yourself killed in the process is pretty tough. Easier and safer to just slag it, collect the scrap, and move on. If you’re engaged in space warfare, you should be able to deal with some space debris. If you can’t, that’s a great reason not to engage in space warfare. But that being up another irksome thing: since ocean-going ships started carrying cannons, the classic killshot was to set off the enemy’s powder or munitions magazine, blowing the ship apart. The sci-fantasy equivalent has almost always been to blow the reactor. Star Wars is especially guilty of this. But what sort of reactor releases such a massive explosion when hit? A fission reactor would melt down, while a fusion reactor would simply fizzle. An antimatter reactor would be most dangerous, as whatever antimatter in it will annihilate, but there probably wouldn’t be much inside. Far better to set off the fuel, if you can, but even then realistic fuels wouldn’t cause a huge explosion on their own. Again, the exception would be breaching a large antimatter container.

I’m a tinkerer. I try to make things look like rockets, but if the mission calls for something odd, then something odd it will be. I use KER to make sure I have the numbers I think I need, but it’s seat-of-the-pants after that. Testing? That’s what Jeb is for! If I don’t have a probe core, Jeb has a mile of guts and will fly it as far as it goes! The real space programs used probes because they knew how to make a guidance system, but the Japanese used kamikaze pilots because they couldn’t. I think Jeb would have been at home in the land of the rising sun.