StrandedonEarth

Yes, but autonomous and communicating cars will at least make thing go more smoothly, to a maximum limit. The problem around here is where an on-ramp merges onto our two-lane "freeway" . Yes, traffic needs to slow down a bit and move over where possible and such. But as soon as one person spikes the brakes due to inattention or being cut off, then that wave of brake lights travels back and gums everything up. At least computers should be able to avoid that and make things flow more smoothly. I think that private car ownership will cease o be a thing for all but the wealthy. You request a car service and pay based on the passenger capacity of the vehicle and directness of the trip, perhaps based on subscription levels. The cars, vans, and buses etc return to service centers between trips for service and cleaning as needed. Another thing computers will be immune to while passengers can gawk all they want at 130kph

Oh excellent, I was wanting to ask if this mod also works when exiting timewarp, but I think that answers it, thanks for this! I have a MinerRefinerTanker on Gilly that would bounce when loading from quicksave or switching to, but exploded when exiting timewarp. My workaround for the last fillup was to quicksave when full while still at high warp, then (after exiting warp and exploding into zillions of pieces) quickload and landing the inevitable bounce. This after discovering that apparently KAS harpoons are one use? At any rate, I lost the harpoons I used to survive the first fillup. Now I have this mod to try out on my next miner. It sound like it should be a great help, thanks!

An air seal is not necessary. If a boarding party is not ready for vacuum the first thing the defenders would do is seal the area and vent it to space. Firing harpoons would avoid the discomfort of ramming.

Yes, it was very reassuring to not see any flames after the test.

Woooot! Spacefart complete!

Yeah, but this is only a static fire, not a full launch. Just a short little 12 second spacefart, not the main event.

Hope everything goes as planned. Luckily it’s a day off due to the slow season today with nothing pressing on my plate, so I can actually watch this happen!

So about ten Kilopower units then.

I had started having a brainstorm that had these characteristics before I read. So I think I'm on the right track, and I think i have a rational that works. One of the principals of SF (as I understand it) is that there's usually one major tech that's not currently theoretically possible that gets handwaved in, as long as it follows self-consistent rules. So I'm going to borrow some basic concepts from Larry Niven's Known Space and a sprinkle from an old SW novel. Part 1: Drives. The major drive innovation will be a gravity planer/polarizer. This will operate on a quanta scale: the first one produced could only produce a maximum thrust of, say, 10kN. Nothing else could be coaxed into stable operation. The next quanta that was stable produced, say, a million times more thrust. The next theorized quanta level would be the size of a not-so-small moon and produce enough thrust to noticeably move a planet, if it could be built. The convenient thing about this drive is that the crew cabin is within the gravity polarizer field and moves along with it, such that squishy crewmembers don't feel the drive accelerate the ship. The inconvenient thing with these drives as that if they get too close, they interfere with each other and malfunction in various ways, such as not working at all or strobing off each other (which also becomes a tactical consideration). Maybe if they get way too close the results get catastrophic? This prevents them from being clustered on capital ships, so that any gravship must be a single gravdrive ship. Delta-vee would be infinite (propellantless space drive, the Holy Grail of spaceflight) as long as it had (ludicrous amounts of?) power. Note that an attacking ship's kinetic energy can be used against it by putting something solid in its path. So a space navy built around this drive would be naturally broken into speed acceleration classes as small ships (such as fighters) could accelerate much faster than larger ones. Part 2: Why Crew? Oh sure, powerful electronic computers are available. They're not too trustworthy in combat situations, however. EM hacking makes them vulnerable to a range of attacks from hacking and tampering to EMPing and getting cooked, unless carefully and heavily shielded. Electronic ordnance guidance systems rarely make it to a target for those reasons. The only reliable computers are either mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, or otherwise fluidic, and are not capable of being miniaturizable enough for long-range, un-spoofable guidance, never mind autonomous. Nope, the most capable and reliable computer available is the Mk I Human(oid) Brain, just like in WW2. Part 3: Lasers? Sure, they would certainly have a place. They also have weaknesses. It should be noted that lasers would be more effective against smaller targets like missile, which have less mass to heat up. Reflective and extreme-temp-resistant armor and other countermeasures mean that lasers, while useful, are not the solution to everything. And this is what the fighters are for, of course.

When someone comes up with a package that both sides can agree on.

However, I never did get into the Asterix comix, but when they cast Laetitia Casta in the live movie.... ooh-la-la!

Nice pics! That huuuge exhaust flame, like wow! what class of motor was that? Which reminded me, I took this one with the kids few years back, it was buried in one of the old model rocket threads around here.

Yes, misleading because it's outdated.

Yeah, they don't boost returns any more, but higher level scientists in the mobile labs generate science faster.

Tintin comics were my favorite!

Do they have another motor to drive the hydraulic pump for the hydraulic motors at the grid fins? Or is that pressurized another way?

I finally had to look up exactly what a Mary Sue is, and the wiki says: A lightsaber wouldn't be that much different than a staff, aside from being careful not to touch yourself with it.And she'd be dead without knowing how to defend herself with her staff. But where did she learn how to operate a starship? The actual piloting. though incredible, can always be Force-guided

It’s deja vu all over again It won’t actually be in Mars orbit. It’s orbit will stretch out to Mars’ orbital path. So it’ll be in Mars’ ‘hood

Actually, I’m not sure, they might, particularly in the Russian segment. I know they were used on MIr, and were the cause of a fire there.

The system on the ISS has had many breakdowns and has relied on spare parts delivered from roughly 200 miles and 17,500 mph away. Canned O2 is the backup system.

Hard not to think of Galileo when every other post is mentioning him. I think just explaining a modern discovery lacks something. It would be far easier to bring something back for show-and-tell. It shouldn’t be too hard to explain a rocket engine and spacecraft in orbit to Galileo. Imagine showing him the closeup pictures of “his” moons, or Saturn. After showing him pictures of Earth from space. Of “Earthrise” from around the Moon

I understand they like to keep their cards close to the vest, but it’d be nice to know what issue(s) they’re working.

Here’s hoping they get to light that triple candle today. The window is supposed to open at 4pm EST, half an hour before I get off work. So hopefully when I’m off work and check my phone, this thread will be a few pages longer Bah humbug

More like rumors based on speculation. Or six of one and half-a-dozen of the other.