StrandedonEarth

Join the club *sniff*. I gave my cold to my wife (there's a particularly nasty one going around) but I still have it. Capt Morgan's Bold Hot Gingerified Toddy's are working wonders for our sore throats though. Not sure if it's a medicinal effect or we just don't care anymore...

I had a string of crazy dreams last night, that seemed to continue even after being roused by the dog. I can't remember much that I can explain with any coherency, but I do seem to recall wanting to send a squadron of F-16 crashing into a target to finish obliterating it.... Although the beginning of the dreams was more ground based and not war-like but I can't seem put the plot/storyline back together.... The dream eye has become unfocused.... At the end there was also something about the enemy using a flying wing to slice a horizontal cylindrical structure into rolling rings... Very weird batch of dreams last night... :shrug:

Yes, but what is the total upmass for each contract?

Come to think of it, you may have more luck seeing it if you rotate the view so the camera is underground...

Hmmm, @JPLRepo: Can we get that for structural tubes in a future update please?

The economics turns a corner when environmental costs (which are currently generally ignored) are factored in. You can't swing a dead caribou these days without running into environmental group opposition to resource extraction projects. It'll eventually become easier and cheaper to mine asteroids than fight the opposition.

Not sure how long ago you found that one, but it tends to be buried, especially depending on terrain settings. It was fixed in one patch/version (when "green meanies" were introduced?)or another, dunno if it regressed back underground or not since then...

Did any of that change under 1.4.3? (finally downloaded 1.4.3 this morning, but haven't even unzipped it yet) Does mounting stuff inside (not clipped inside) a structural tube help at all? While I got the part about mounting stuff on/under a taper-in doesn't help, does the taper-in itself improve drag (upside down 1.25-to-2.5 cone)? I'm about to try MH for the first time: I guess an upside-down closed SM-25 is the best bet for mounting stuff inside, assuming the above question is affirmative?

Figured if you had one, you'd have the other. Jarre's laser harp is pretty cool too...

And know when not to drink the coffee... I don't think he's a bad choice. He doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to run the program, he just needs to know how to run the program. More importantly, how to wring money out of Congress, for the right things.

Always loved that album cover. Puts me in mind of...

That's because there are better more interesting things to do, usually not as a family. Ironic that my wife tells me to play a board game with the kids, but she couldn't be bothered. And no, not because she's cooking dinner, but cuz she's checking FaceCrack. The kids would rather be on the XB1 (one version of CoD* or another), and I'd rather be surfing this very forum, or actually playing KSP (or Civ6)... *I used to play CoD with them, but they always kick my cheeks these days (the co-op missions were better). Just like I destroy them at StarCraft (1 or 2. them vs me) without having to really try, like swatting flies with a semi.

And consoles, and it's what all the kids play these days, so you can't swing a dead kerbal without hitting a fortnite player. Kinda more cartoonish looking (or least less realistic looking), from what I saw my kids playing on PS4

Indeed, it's called "convergent evolution." As in, designs tend to be refined towards an optimum configuration, and there is usually only one optimum configuration for a given task, no matter who designs it.

Care to elaborate on what these show-stoppers are?

Yup, wrong emoji, couldn't see it clearly on my phone. And my eyes were blurry from the sinus pressure. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Although the doctor was hot. If only she was taking new patients.... (don't tell my wife that)

You must be a Winterpegger. Here in Lotusland, while I wouldn’t call that cold, I also wouldn’t call it warm... My complaint is that I went to walk-in clinic because I seem to have a sinus infection. Yeah, it looked busy, but I figured a 50-90 minute wait. 2.5 hours later there’s still 2 more people in front of me

That said, the only real reason to send people off Earth, aside from coolness, is to colonize so that all our eggs are not in one basket. Of course, that would require industry. Maybe when earthly industry can be done robotically, we can start robotic space industry. While Dextre has taken over some ISS EVA tasks, spacewalks are still required for some work.

And when they all turn into Martian Zombies, leave them up there!

Maybe some "blueberries"?

It... it... it... might actually finally be time to buy MH! As long as I don't hear about any new major bugs appearing (or old ones resurfacing) by Friday. It'll be time to launch a 5m supertanker!

The only thing I've read that comes close to a plausible zombification is Dean Koontz's Midnight (1989). It's not actually a zombie story, but the former humans in the book may as well be zombies. The basis of it is that someone creates a self-replicating electronic "bug" which reinforces a person's immune and healing mechanisms. It also lets them mentally become whatever their brain thinks it should become (mostly some sort of feral killing beast; some manage to meld with computers). There are two ways to kill them: "Take out the processor" (kill the brain which commands the body) or destroy the pump (demolish the heart, because if it can't pump the body can't repair itself. Otherwise the body could heal itself extremely fast. But they are not actually undead, and once dead they stay that way.

There is another area with the potential for mass savings: Power generation and storage. Newer electronics consume much less power, requiring smaller batteries, which are also lighter for a given power capacity compared to old batteries. This won't amount to much for the launch vehicle, but should have a bigger effect on the SM and LEM. The SM used fuel cells, would modern fuel cells be lighter? Since less power is required*, they could be smaller, and less reactants would be needed. Or perhaps the SM could switch to a PV system for longer duration missions. The LM also used batteries, with the same potential for weight reduction or upgrading. I assume Saturn was built of aluminum? Considerable weight could be saved just by switching to the Li-Al alloy used in the Super-Lightweight ET's at the end of the Shuttle program. Personally, I wouldn't use weight saving to shrink the system, instead I would upgrade the capabilities of the mission. Newer, lighter batteries would extend the range of the rover, which is a must for science and mineral surveys, and solar charging stations could be a thing. *unless more power-hungry devices are added.

Not since 07/19/2016 Wow, I just noticed that I went rocketing past the 3k mark without even noticing!

Boo-ya! So what, does @Just Jim not play this game?