monstah

F1 buffs, are we? I confess I've watched less than a handful of races since the nineties. I was shocked after Ayrton, then I lost interest when I became a teenager (and the races were on friggin' Sunday morning, who's going to wake up for that? )

I always feel so guilty I've never read him. I think I even have Duna in my shelf, borrowed from my dad, along with, I dunno, a metric ton or two of unread books

Bonus round, five specific people still alive: Zach Weiner (from the SMBC webcomic - hopefully, wearing clothes) Carolyn Parco (formerly NASA, member of teams for Voyager, Cassini, Huygens, New Horizons; together with Sagan, insisted that there were cameras on the Voyager probes) Morgan Freeman (A.K.A., "God") (ever watched or heard an interview with him? That man is astonishingly interesting, intelligent and concerned. And charming as hell, to boot) Elon Musk (from... oh, you've heard of him, right? The Boring Company, yeah!) Kirk Hammet (Yeah, yeah, I know! "Metallica sucks", "they're idiots", "they're in it for the money", "their music has been crap for over 20 years", I've heard all of this before. Screw it, I find this guy cool )

Wow, surprising! He was my childhood hero; I was nine and watching the race when he died I think maybe Kuerten was for the current generation what he was for mine? This is a tricky one. Lets see. I'll assume I can chose dead people too, and also that I have a Babel fish, or some Comprehend Languages scrolls, or whatever. In no particular order: Any human who has been to space (preferably one who has been to the Moon, even just on flyby) Any ancient Greek well-versed in pre-modern scientific thinking Any citizen who is: from any place with a culture vastly different from mine, say, Ethiopia or Tibet; inclined to scientific and philosophical thought and argument (regardless of scientific knowledge); concerned with mankind and the future of this planet; religious, and willing to have a respectful discussion about their beliefs with an atheist (that is, me) Arthur C Clarke HP Lovecraft

Because posting on an old thread is not an inherently bad thing to do, and definitely not slam-in-the-face-worthy.

And so it has been, for over 15 years.

HP Lovecraft

I'm old enough to have been through a few pets, mostly cats. It's always sad to see them go, but each time it's also a little lesson in non-attachment. You will never forget them, but in time the pain will go away

Precisely. I want to run a sci-fi RPG in such a setting

Frac...tius? (whoa, had to dig up my brain for that one. Should I say, Exhume? :D)

Ship thread moved to Spacecraft Exchange subforum

Great thread! For the original question, I think if you're to say the reference planet is Earth, then I'd say use the atmosphere all you can, both in terms of lift and propellant (your air-assisted NTR idea. I don't know how feasible that is iRL, but I suppose it is), and aerobrake. Even if you can't get orbital speed, just the propellant savings in reaching high altitude are probably worth it. VTOL, tho, given your requirements on infrastructure. Now, if we're going for other planets, I'd like to point to the page 10 of this paper, which suggests that, well, Earth is pretty damn big for a rocky. Pick something, say, the size of Mars, and you half both the TWR requirements and the orbital velocity; NTRs seem doable! What about CO2? It's pretty cheap on Mars, and can be harvested (and kept?) solid.

Rocket (vegetable! )

Punk

than Ever

Pi.

kidding me? Ninjas. Ninjas everywhere.

such a lovely day to spend in an office

Well, it ended up being the right thread. This is your answer (I realize some haven't been around for long to realize this is an answer, so: this was Sal's old avatar)

Oh, no, they never do, at least not for me:

Oh man, I'm late for the party. And it seems I'm the only moderator with a different avatar, that has to be fixed as soon as I get out of mobile! Yeah guys, this ain't April fools, it's the real deal. Sal, you're a great guy. I had respect for you when I was just a regular user, and it only grew after I got to know you a little better and see all the work you put behind the scenes. You're a good guy, and I think a lot of the good spirit of this forum is thanks to you. You've taught me a lot about moderation. Luckily, the mod team still has @Snark's wisdom Have a great journey, bro. You know you can crash on my couch anytime you decide to drag your trip to South America Aw man, I'm out having a beer with my wife, I just logged on to see what was up and now my eyes are all watering up... I knew this goodbye was coming, but it still feels like goodbye. All I can say is don't worry: the forum is in good hands

In the vein of what @Vanamonde intended to say, you may try the mod Time Control: It enables more time warp than stock, but it also enables slow motion. Together with the "lock physics delta" setting, it will animate in slow motion, but the calculations will only be run every some frames; the passage of time will be slower (so you can't just pretend you have a better computer), but not in the same way as a low frame rate (i.e., the mouse will be responsive, you'll be able to change the camera, and animations will be smoother). It's not the solution to your problems, but it helps alleviate the pain a bit Oh, and welcome!

Belong to us.

FALCOOOONNNNN PUNCH!

It's back \o/ @adsii1970 tried updating your following preferences for the thread, that pop up when you click the "Follow" button? Maybe it's set to not notify.