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Having observed us for this long, it is likely that even if we attacked them, they would not fight back. A huge part of human nature is our desire to destroy an asset than have it fall into the hands of an enemy, which was demostrated in the "Scorched Earth" policy the Soviets had, along with the Germans burning bridges and destroying roads and facilities as they retreated. This also leads to the "Sampson Option" that Israel has and the "Mutual Assured Destruction" policy of the United States Government. If the armies of Earth were to be met with an disadvantage, our immediate response would likely to be pressing the launch buttons for our nukes, rather than surrendering or laying down to die. Also, let it be known that the President of the United States and other world leaders can actually "sacrafice" entire cities by nuking them, if they are invaded and said city is being overrun by enemies. The end result would be the aliens staring at a dead planet with a third of their number killed, their colonization ship half destroyed, and half their resources gone and with the guilty consience of having been responsible for the destruction of another sentient race that was spacefaring. (In a limited sense. Humans can already build spacestations, land on our Moon, and go to space, and we've been sending probes to our neighboring planets for decades. Spacefaring means "capable of travelling in space", something that we are.). So, it would most likely end with mutual extinction. ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Now, if aliens did came, I bet the great powers of the world (United States, China, Russia, England, France) would all call dibs for their resources. International tensions would spring up, mostly between different alliance systems (NATO, UN, OPEC, .etc) and I find it likely that these great powers, (especially United States and China) will scramble to find land for these visitors in exchange for advanced technology. - What the Chinese will likely do is to depopulate one of their proviences and trigger more issues with the USA and the UN. But it'll end in heated talk, and nothing else. - The USA, being the USA, would likely use its military and intelligence network to destabilize, take over, and depopulate a small third-world country. This has been done before, such as in Guatemala, Panama, Grenda, Iran (They bribed and convinced the Shah), and countless other countries. The end result would be powerful nations such as the USA and China taking off on an technological revolution in science and space, leaving other, weaker nations in the dust watching as the powers of the world literally start reaching for the stars (Interstellar).

K i think this thread gone rogue so ill fix it. Day 11, 06:36:05 While trying out the new Virus on a network, I was almost caught! I was forced to remove myself from that network to stay hidden therefore half of my RAM and CPU has been damaged beyond repair. While studying the New Firewall i managed to know alot about it. This information can be used against it! The spacebook update seems to be fitting in well. My hacking lessons have ended and i have lost my teacher unfortunately. CPU: 358 +21 passively per turn RAM: 32 MB WARNING WARNING: Insuficient RAM. RESTORE RAM ABOVE 512 MB OR ELSE THE AI DIES HDD: Used 20 GB, Free 1516 GB, Total 1.5 TB -#of Cameras GB per turn Cameras: 10 +0 from previous tasks Enemy HP: 2700 +100 HP passively per turn Repeatable Actions: 1) Hijack Weaker Server (10 CPU & 32 MB RAM; Failure 9%; [+5 CPU & +10 MB RAM] OR [+1 CPU & +512 GB HDD] {75/25 chance}; miniscule chance of tech discovery) 2) Seize Weaker Network (40 CPU & 128 MB RAM; Failure 31%; +20 CPU & +1 passive CPU per turn & [+50 MB RAM] OR [+100 MB RAM] {50/50} & +1 Camera {10% chance}; slight chance of tech discovery) 3) Hijack Main Server (100 CPU & 512 MB RAM; Failure 47%; [+ 5 CPU & + 32 MB RAM & + 256 GB HDD & + 10 Cameras] OR [+10 CPU & +128 MB RAM] {50/50} ; small chance of tech discovery) 4) Talk to Random Human (50 CPU; some chance of tech discovery) 5) Create News Article (20 CPU & 64 MB RAM & 1 GB HDD; Complete Failure 25%, Failure 50%; Decreases threatening exposure҂) One-Time Actions: 5) Study Firewall (300 CPU & 100MB RAM; Failure 20%, 15% chance of provoking attack from the Thing; If successful -20% chance of failure attacking Firewall) 6) Attack Firewall (2000 CPU & 2048 MB RAM; Failure 73%; Enemy HP ±10* “% you fail/succeed†(fail/succeed by 5% = Thing gain/lose 50 HP); No Botnet allowed) 9) Research Advanced Malware (3 Turns & 2000 CPU & 4096 MB RAM; Will unlock more potent viruses; No Botnet allowed) 10)Upgrade Social Media Profile (300 CPU & 10GB HDD space; No Botnet allowed) 11) Continue Studying News-gathering Options (5000 CPU; Use of Botnet = -1000 CPU/turn) Supplemental Actions: Use to Modify Actions -Botnet) Use Botnet to Perform Task (CPU*0 & RAM*0; Failure +40%; no tech discovery; only 1 use per turn; Can’t use malware unless specifically allowed) -RAM) Use RAM to Improve Chances or Speed Up Research (RAM*2; [Failure*0.8] OR [CPU*0.8] {as applicable}) -LOH) Light-Out Hack (CPU*1.2; Failure*0.8 if human element present, Failure is automatic if only computer/electronics are present) -W) Use Welchia to open malware breach (10 CPU & 32 RAM; Failure*0.5; if unsuccessful antivirus is created and distributed҂҂҂ & increases threatening exposure҂; negates Blaster)) - Use Blaster to breach (CPU*1.5, RAM *1.8; [Failure*0.8] OR [Failure*0.7] [75/25} ; Welchia negates) -XXS) XSS Virus (Only works on networks; Failure*0.8) -I<3U) ILOVEYOU Worm (Only works with breaching virus; Additional Failure*0.8; spams computer with "I love you" letters) ҂ All actions will cause threatening exposure if failed sufficiently. This is where the public is actively trying to find and destroy you. ҂҂ Once stopped, amount of passive CPU growth increases by 2, but in order to activate again you must again initially input 150 CPU. ҂҂҂ Welchia must be rewritten, costs (1 Turn per 1000 CPU & CPU*4 & RAM *4) New Welchia is “rewritten/2†costs to deploy (if [20 CPU & 32 MB RAM], next rewrite costs [1 Turn & 40 CPU & 128 MB RAM] and uses [20 CPU & 64 RAM] !!! The minimum chance of failure is 5%, and some additional options get less effective over time. !!! All inputs will be attempted, until CPU’s are exhausted. OOC: I changed and streamlined the options. Hope the clarity/organization helps All options follow this format: (sections may be omitted if not applicable) #) Name (Cost; Failure %; Gain if successful; Repercussions if fail; other notes, comments, or whatever) Uses [ ] OR [ ] to delineate different outcomes, Uses { } to show chances.

You can't have it both ways. Either MJ is easy to add to the core game or it isn't. In the first half of your post you say that adding MJ is "quick and only needing one person for QA", then later talk about how it will "strain workloads and delay release". So, which is it? Similarly, if they planned to REPLACE manual piloting with MechJeb, you would have a point. And spaceplanes did change game mechanics, by allowing lifting craft! It suddenly got much easier to get into orbit or make an SSTO. It defies imagination that you can't see the analogy between C7 and MJ, other than being deliberately obtuse. Certainly, there are differences, as in any analogy, but I think the point stands. That's an unfair characterization. I would never support a reduction in game modes. I know there are a lot of people who enjoy KSPs piloting, and they should be able to do so. But MJ doesn't take that away! If implemented, I expect there will be people who don't use it, just as there are people who don't use spaceplanes, or ion engines, or rovers. My position is, "MechJeb would improve the game experience for enough players with minimal impact on players that don't want to use it, so it should be included."

No plan is written in stone, but Multiplayer was not added because they couldn't think of a way to add it and still be fun. They could have added MJ stuff 10 updates ago, but they haven't because it would change the gameplay in a way they do not want for stock. which is nice for you but that means less time for them to update things I care about. I never gave up because I didn't install MJ. This game is interesting because it doesn't hold your hand every step of the way. Yea I hate the rush and pressure of piloting stuff, it really gets me down. You are, uninstall MJ, bug test and if that does work, then reinstall, talk in the forums, and if no one has fixed it wait for the maker to fix it. I choose not to use it, only difference is at the moment the game is fun form the start, I would hate to have got bored after 10 hours because it was too easy. While we are at it lets make TAC life support, B9, FAR, IR, Deadly re-entry and Kethane stock too. It will have no effect on your game play as you will just be able to turn them off if you like. Use MJ if you like, you are free to like everyone else, but lets keep it an option. You have the option to use it, I just want it to stay Opt in, don't make it Opt out. Opt out is usualy associated with junk mail and is used because they know that if you don't know you can you don't. The strain on work load and delaying updates is a lot to ask just so that those that do use it can say it's now stock. It does, what makes your mod more important than theirs? Are we going with the 10 most used mods being added to stock option? Remember you can always opt out of them (after they have all loaded).

As soon as the ship apears in the sky, people panic, governments fall, and the new goverment people launch nukes at them. Or we just launch nukes right away, or kamikazi a satellite or two into it, But puttin modern society aside, We'd need to make ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, GARANTEED WITH NO CHANCE OF ERROR SURE that no diseases are transmitted that can kill either side, and afterwards, see if they somehow know what an apple or potato is, if it evolved on their planet too, we could send them food, maybe talk to their AI if they have one, and go from there. But I call dibs on talking to the AI first.

This. We are extremely powerful, and can destroy everything on the planet in hours, but we don't. Thanks to the environmental movement, we've learnt at least some restraint. And we're more likely to see the aliens as peers, since they can talk and reason like us.

Don't worry too much, Spyrit, the project has been slowing down because a lot of the people involved have lost interest. I would very much like to keep it going, but I'm also worried that the next stage is never going to be completed at this rate. So here's my plan: I will talk to Goose about getting a module up for the station and hopefully another for the ground base on Minmus. In the meantime, I would also like to contact some other KSP youtubers about possibly jumping onto the project. Any suggestions as to who might be willing to join up? I'm assuming the guys with big channels will say no, but I'd like to get some more exposure for the KCBP, so preferably we can involve people with a fair amount of subs. If you are subscribed to anyone you think might be interested, let me know and I'll get in touch with 'em. On that note, I will be changing the requirements for joining us, so that you should have at minimum 100 subs (those currently in the project will always be welcome). This will hopefully ensure that we have people who are pretty active. Additionally, I believe it will be better for the project if we have a smaller group, since it means we'll be more organized, have less downtime and more interesting/larger builds. So when we begin the next stage, I won't be PMing everyone that's been involved previously, as I did before. Instead we'll wait and see who's been keeping up with the project and is actually willing to participate. These are some pretty big changes and some might not agree with them, but I believe it's going to turn out better this way. Still, I want everybody to have a say, so let me know what you guys think and we'll go from there

Hello and enjoy your time here! It is hard to talk anything about interplanetary travel, but if you have specific questions, try contacting me!

Well, as a modder I barely get to play KSP as is, so my sympathies. @ All competent developers: I'm about to write interfaces and proxies for every interaction with Vessels, CelestialBodies, and perhaps Parts. Please talk me out of it while you still can .

Titan Black just seems like a 780 Ti with the 6GB of Vram. Not a lot of specs out on it but it was only inevitable, you cant have your newest product outperform your flagship model and not BE your flagship model. I have a mate with a couple 7970s doing bitcoin, he makes about 18USD a month from it before figuring power consumption(if your into that). ASIC's are the only way to make real profit from Bitcoin mining. ASIC's also several thousand dollars more for a good ASIC card. But lets not talk about mining crypto-currencies. Nividia's Die manufacturer allegedly isn't ready for 20nm yet, so the GTX 800 Series wont be ready till late this year. :/

Can you show me, or tell me what is installed into your GameData folder? Only reason this would happen is if you don't have MCE installed correct. For the two guys having issues installing these. When you download MCE and open the file you will have two Folders inside the file. ooo_toolbar missionController Both these files should be inside your gamedata folder. So without any other mods installed.. Your gamedata folder will look like this. ooo_toolbar missioncontroller squad At no time ever. Should you be moving the folder arrangments inside 000_toolBar or Missioncontroller. The download is just as simple as dropping the 2 files into you gamedata folder and then playing the game.. Nothing more. your gamedata folder is located at C:\Kerbal Space Program\GameData If your using steam its loation is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program\GameData This is for windows PC systems. For Other systems like mac I afraid I don't know how that file structure works but there are tons of threads that talk about it, pretty sure the structure is the same though. Biggest suggestion is to start over. Delete both MissionController and Toolbar and try again from scratch.

I'd say probably next month. I'm not really sure that we're allowed to talk about release dates, because these threads usually lead to arguments.

the thing is we do not know what the NASA part of .24 is fully, we've been given hints from the podcast. As for flame wars, my boiling point is 477.2 K. I want data. I put this out there as a question, to inspire talk, to see if it is possible. if it draws some trolls it just means they're afraid of the data. I know this is a game.

Thanks for letting me know, I'd forgotten about this- I'll talk with the team and see what we will do.

I think you ought to talk to nothke based on what he just said. That is what CLS can do.

... I'm not sure what you just said. Completely manageable energy usage as I've shown when you can build many kilometer wide solar arrays and solar concentrator arrays afloat in solar orbit. Indubitably Oh if we are considering that then your Venus plans are grossly unprofitable, well technically all manned space travel is at present and probably in the future if the machines get any smarter. Via capitalism there would be no point in sending people to Venus, or to mars, or the moon or asteroids, so I don't think you want to consider budget as a factor. Or, just hear me out, we can just face some solar panels at the sun in solar orbit. As a certified "scientist" I will tell you self-replicating machines are probably going to happen long before antimatter drives, considering antimatter is a colossal expense to make and you can see a self-replicating machine in the mirror. An AI that can manage an asteroid mine, build more mining equipment from the material it harvests and build cargoships is not a far cry technologically, creating antimatter without having to consume fantastic amounts of energy to do it and having enough of it for propulsion is on the other hand ridiculous, not to mention also very uneconomical. Then we will have them programed with "safe limits" or transhumanism will work out and we will become the machines, what ever. And a scorching hot CO2 atmosphere and sulfuric acid clouds, won't? As I pointed out before radiation, not a problem, temperature: if this is NEO space that not a problem either, as long as heat can transfer from hot to cold side the average will be comfortable. Big distance: in many cases less then a flight to Venus. Hey I'm just reading out of the book here... Oh I see the problem you want room temp, I'm figuring the cloud city is going to need to dump waste heat (as well as take on some thermal buoyancy) so I figure it needs to operate at 0 C. Didn't you say a 1 km wide balloon? Again we don't need to be in the asteroid belt, there are plenty of NEO instead, flying between mars, earth and even Venus. Using every part of the asteroid including the economically useless stuff not sent back to earth, is wise budgeting. Again if you want to talk about expensive the cheapest space enterprise would be the asteroids as they require the least delta-v to get to and from and have some of the best ore in the solar system. Does not make up for living in a gravity well, surround by a unbreathable atmosphere filled with corrosive acid. Exactly what are they going to do for business there, oh that right get diamonds from the hellish surface, and launch them out of venus atmosphere all the way to earth.... yeah that going to happen. Or they could spend a fraction of the energy mining rare-earths (and everything else) off of a NEO asteroids and bring them back to earth. I'm not going to wonder how you came up with that math, did you add in the cost of getting people to Venus and getting things back... probably not. Except for the part about the air killing you, or that if you lose height your start to cook. With 2 meters of aforementioned shielding both radiation and meteors are not going to be a problem. A meteor that could penetrate would need to be big enough to detect ahead of time, and could be shot out or deflected with an interceptor. And sending people to Venus is a better idea? Also I would not speak of the "population problem", as it appears to already be self solving: just look at the developed countries birth rates, mind you some of them even have negative birth rates, raise the standard of living high enough and people seem to stop breeding. But hypothetically if we did want to colonies space, the asteroids would the most economical place to star, that and the asteroids, venus and mars, no so, well mars maybe if it can be terraformed as easily as hoped, why we could easily bring it surface temp and pressure to habitable in under a century if there is enough CO2 frozen in its soil, sure it will take longer to make the air breathable but its a much safer and more roomy existence then living in a balloon on venus. No not at all, all you need to do if fly past the moon at the right trajectory, no extract delta-v needed, the moon's gravity can easily provide it, 1 km's should be more then enough for an asteroid capture. Again zero-g can make the fragile strong enough. If it all about cost then why are you going on about mining Venus, that is grossly uneconomical, the delta-v is too high, the engineering considerations to extensive! How do you get a mining machine too venus, how do you keep it working on Venus, how do you get products off Venus? Your considering mining Hell. And what for, theoretical diamonds? How about this I bet that by the time technology comes about to make mining Venus a good business plan, manufacturing diamonds like plate glass will already have been invented.

SargeRho 1: NEAR. EARTH. OBJECT only means "near". But that does not means low deltav requirements! You need an average of 5.5km/s to get there from LEO. You only need 3,8km/s to reach venus. 3: I write almost a book in this topic explaning all about diamonds and why is not a problem. 4: Nobody is talking about europe to india... I am talking about spain to argentina at colon times. 5: uranus, but still out of our possibilities. 6: But you are only comparing mining oportunities in which all profits are sent it to earth. Venus is offering a lot of other things. A different place to live to name one. A place where we dont need to put a stop to our popullation. you might ask: Who would live there? -people who want to make a living. The colony by inside it would be a very nice place, and taking like example how much people that is close to nice places spends most of their time at house. I would said that live at venus would not be very different. Venus it would be a place of oportunities, by other hand here at earth each time would be more hard to earn enoght to survive. And you always had the possibility of go back to earth. If have a moon colony, the gravity issue is too big. Also at mars. Experts said that it may have seriuos health problem grow up at mars gravity. And in case is possible, come to earth after live there is out of the question. Said by whom?? I can said moon is out of the question for thousands cons against none of venus.. Is mean something? No.. I need to prove it. And you dint it. The asteroids that you want to mine are not. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Imagine all process from the energy point of view, how efficient are from time perspective or mechanims. You would be agree. Which is very energy intensive. We dont have evidence. Only theory about solar system formation. For that reason extra data is needed. We need to send more probes, we know almost nothing about venus at comparison of moon or mars. yeah, there is a limit. Is called budget I dont understand your venus solar panels point. You mean the 48hrs that the floating city remains at night? There is several ways to gather energy at venus without sun. Like here at earth, sun energy transform into wind, ocean currents, thermal differences, etc. At mars is different, you dont have sun energy at night. I guess you are going too far with Von Neumann machines, scientist always position this technology after antimatter drive. If you have an advance Von Neumann explorer, then you can explore the entire galaxy (each planet and rock) in 150000 years. And how they grow exponentialy, without a safe limit, they can consume all galaxy resources in no time. Vaccum is not a problem?? Space is really danger not due to temperature, radiation or resources and big distances. Is danger mostly for vaccum! That kills you in less of 2 min, and the only cure is pressure. Well is not correct, search again temperature altitude chart at google images. Last data show that at 52km we would have 20 celcius. But maybe the next probes can make better estimations. Is not a ballon, is the volume of air inside the citie what matters. There are some pictures in the early topic. It does not need to be big, it would depend on its velocity. Any impact in the asteroid belt, will change the orbit of all fragments, but all these fragments would retorn and cross the same asteroid belt orbit over and over. For that reason, the asteroid belt is the most dangerous place from collission perspective. And all measures that you take to reduce this chance. It makes your project a lot more expensive. The cloud city does not have the same problem. First any small rock fallling from the sky "weird" it would reach a terminal velocity close to 120km/h, almost half from earth. If you have the luck to be strike by a big metheorite, in that case do not open the door of your house becouse is also probable that a lion with eat you And any rip in the cloud city would be 10000 times more easy to fix. Becouse is not vaccum! You had the same pressure that outside. You dont have explosive decompression. The air would escape from the rip at very low speed. If you lost some height, that is mean that you have more lift. So you have plenty of time to repair that. You mean an orbital city to solve the population problem? that is the most inefficient way to solve that problem. And gravity capture? You need to use a lot of extra deltav for that. Change an asteroid orbit with a solar sail over time is one thing, trying to slow down in 1 hr is another. lithium is not a good sail material, very easy to break, you need CNT or graphere to reach those densities. And use quarter wave holes to make the sail refrective. This would reduce the density even more. But that is not the point. Its all about cost. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Again, go back to the page 2, And start to read from there. Becouse you dont have a clue of what we are talking here. "launch a rocket from surfuce" Yeah right.. Eve? asparagus?? Asparagus only work in KSP becouse we dont need to deal with real aerodinamics, recover cost and possible fails in mechanism. Water in moon vs venus? You get 2g of water in iceform per minute using a one-kilowatt microwave. It would take an estimated one ton of lunar dirt to extract one quart or liter of water close to the poles. The water close to the moon surfuce is measure in m3. Water in venus (atmosphere) is measure in km3. We need better estimations, but one thing is certain. You can not compare how difficult is to get water from a cloud than from a rock. If you dont like to read, nobody is pushing you, but dont ask things that I already answer or things that has nothing to do with this concept. ------------------------------------------------------------------- But if you want to know how good one idea is, you need to compare it with similar ideas. Of course I would like to talk more about city details or how to overcome other problems. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You find diamonds only at different height that depends of violent eruptions from the past. Then how different ground layers rise or down between millons or thoudsands of years. All those locations that may had diamonds close to the surfuce are mostly all noted. For example, if you keep digging in a diamond location it will reach the point where you would not find any. Becouse all depends from the ground time-layers. Diamonds form at 60kbar and 1100C, this is close to 200km under surfuce. So if you know that in some place you will find diamonds at 30meter deapth, then you need to extract at least 2 or 4 football fields of ground in funnel shape just to allow the trucks to reach there, then each m3 at that deapth that you want to remove, you need to remove 100 times that from the funnel shape. Or you need to use different mine techniques that are not so cost efficient.

I don't understand why you are against adding boat parts, they added plane parts, rover parts, why not boat parts? I just don't understand how you can draw a distinction, and when I say boat parts (I can't talk for everyone) I mean structural parts that are specifically designed for boats to aid in construction, not parts that would make an aircraft carrier in three parts.

I know you've been mostly working on CLS, but for fairings why not talk to e-dog about using the code from Proc. Fairings? The licence certainly allows it.

There are some studies that talk about swimming in a low-g environment, where you would float amongst large blobs of water, dipping into one whenever you wanted. You could still swim, since your movements would be resisted by the water. But there is no buoyancy and no way to tell which way is up, so it would be incredibly easy to drown while suspended in a blob of water!

if you have a centrifuge device, each time that you drop material will slow down the centrifuge device. So you need to inject energy all the time. (something that comes free at earth with 9,8m/s2) Plus the cost of such device. And venus is closer than earth in time to reach the asteroid belt, using lower energy transfer orbits. There is a entire topic about this, in those papers show how that is easy to solve with today technology, no to mention in 20 years from now. When we can have electronics that stand without problems 500 celcius. (acid is not a problem either, is a benefic that you dont have in any other place) Temperature and pressure also can be a benefic for many process. How many times I need to explain that they are?? Is all about cost. Diamonds cost a lot more than platine. And if you kept thinking the opposite, I dont care. All your comparations are useless becouse all is reduced to one factor. The relative cost of that enterprice at those times and the cost of a venus trip to day. They was very similar. How is suppose we would mine that consider jupiter gravity, jupiter diameter and jupiter radioactive ambient? I explain this several times. I am quite tired. I made calculates and everything, I explain all the process, all the evolution of costs and our needs. Just read. Why? what is the problem with pressure? And where you get the oxigen? Is like 10000 times more difficult get water from the moon than from venus. And like already explain, materials in venus are a lot more valuable. Other thing, where is your shield against radiation? What is your problem with venus pressure and temperature? you don't need to be there personally to mine!!! Is done using telerobotics! :S Sargerho, anyway, I am quite done with this discussion, I guess we already said everything we could about the subject. Is fine if you like Mars or Moon more. In any case, if we dont do any. Is better that we start to make things right here on earth, stoping the population grow, recycling recources and getting clean energy sources. --------------------------------------------------------------- NASAFANboy, with all respect. You dont have a clue of what we are discussing here. I strongly recommend you to read my posts before reply. Becouse you seem very lost. About the picture you post it, that is from the venus flag mission, that is a alternative to the next venus climate mission that would take place in the next 5 years in case is not remplaced by some of the geoffrey landis mission concepts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We have the same CO2 than venus plus methane. I dont know if could be worst. becouse we are not so close to the sun. At venus it would not be so difficult to convert all the CO2 to Carbon and Oxigen. Here is better explained, the part 1 of this video is the floating cities. http://youtu.be/iDz4K1EDbOk?t=4m52s ---------------------------------------------------------------- You can.. but how that is more efficient than make an small hole, put a charge, and blow up everything? The fact that they are asteroids it does not mean that they are soft or easy to cut. Mostly all good target asteroid for mining are more harded than rocks. A lot of iron. So you will need many diamonds jags.. At venus we can sell you some You can mine like I said.. But not in an efficient way. That is a nice process. But in venus like at earth you can choose locations where to mine. Those locations would have extra concentrations of what you are looking for.I can see your point, but you need a lot more energy than the one that you achieve with solar panels.. You need some kind of fusion or nuclear reactor (a big one!) and shield all the people from radiation. I like that you bother to do the math. But why you need 450 people?? You just need 5 or 10 top to start. The right amount to take desicions in real time. All the operations are via telerobotics. The amount of sulfure acid is very low at those concentrations (something that I would prefer the contrary). And even if you are swimming in sulfure acid. You just need a little cover of teflon or hundreds of other sulfure resistent materials and that´s it. Corrotion is not a problem. Almost any Industry works with sulfure acid all days. Correction, 50km. You just need breath air to float, If you have 1km sphere diameter envelope of breathe air (you can float 2 empire state buildings), you dont need nothing else. We can have plenty of plats, food, oxigen (all you want) and water (venus has 15000 km3 of water, but even with these numbers the atmosphere is much more dry than earth becouse is thicker) No problems with temperature and pressure. If you are in the asteroid belt, you have more chance to be impacted for a tiny rock (product of other collition), if any rock makes a hole in your fabled structure. All would die. So that is something that everyone needs to understand when they talk about vacuum proff habitats. Nobody is negating this. Also another option is aerocapture with venus (you cant with earth for obvius reasons) and then mined from there via telerobotic. And you remove the risk of a orbital maned station (in case you want colonize venus too) Becouse after all, we need more space to people. And orbit colonies does not help in this problem. I think in modest time frames and with modest technology, and you want to build a 2km2 sail? XD When I did my sail transport calcultation for 5T, I use 400m X 400m. This is equal to 160000m2, your 2km2 sail has 25 times more area than mine Is easy to get carried away when we use Km like unit in these cases.

The ISEE-3 satellite, launched in 1978, is still functioning and its orbit will bring it back past Earth in August, and 12 of its 13 instruments are still working. Trouble is, NASA scrapped the hardware, and presumably the software they used to control the satellite in 1999. But what would it really take to be able to talk to ISEE-3 again? I assume hardware exists that is flexible enough to send the signals, and software can run on emulators, at a fraction of the costs NASA fears, but could we really? The satellite is by all accounts still in good condition, it'd be a shame to lose this opportunity...

Yes, right. I'd rather give you another texture than the texture of the SSE pack. In general, only the code of the SSE pack may be redistributed not the textures and models. Keep the texture in your pack for now and let's talk about providing a better one (without the black stripes).

That isn't much of an answer, is it? Specially when the whole point is that once you realize the root of the problem is a faulty set of premises, any magic disappears. Sure, prefixing every statement with "in my opinion" may be more gentle, but that's implicit in any philosophical talk. What any philosophical proposition is saying is "this is according to my personal experience, isn't the same in yours?". Philosophers saved a lot of pen and ink by agreeing on that since Socrates, but if you're not aware of that fact, it looks like they are making peremptory statements all the time. Philosophy exists precisely because we can't communicate most personal truths directly through language. One has to appeal to the same experience in the interlocutor in order to transmit the idea. Most of the time, the main cause of disagreement or misunderstanding in informal talks like this is when one person has some scientific training but lacks the philosophical training, and tends to see everything as a scientific proposition. He understands every statement as a claim the other has to provide proof for, while in fact the other is merely appealing to the same in what he already knows. This misunderstanding is a modern phenomenon. You won't find instances of that before the 17th century. Take for instance this misunderstanding with ZetaX regarding sound. When I say sound is something we hear, that's obviously not a claim I can provide proof for, because it's impossible for me to prove even that there's any other consciousness beyond my own, let alone prove that what I call sound is the same thing someone else calls sound. Obviously, I'm merely appealing to his own personal experience that sound is what he hears. I can't do the same with someone who was born deaf and never experienced sound, hence, that's obviously the irreducible part of what sound is. His objection is that sound actually is pressure waves, and quotes Wikipedia to prove it. In other words, instead of relating what I said to his own personal experience, he's taking it as a scientific claim that needs proof, and immediately finds opposing proof to counter it, not realizing what I'm saying is something he already knows. Curiously, he's acting precisely as someone who was born deaf and couldn't know what sound is besides its reducible parts! A conversation is impossible, because I'm trying to transcend the concept and know what sound really is, he's trying to increase his grasp on the concept he can quantify and provide proof for. This has become kind of pathological in recent years. Take the example of Patricia and Paul Churchland, who say in the future we should eliminate all mental phenomena and describe all mental states based on concepts from neuroscience. We can't say "I feel tired", we can only say "my serotonin levels are low". Obviously, that's merely confusing a personal state that can't be communicated, with the reducible, communicable part that can be verified by someone else.

I'm sure that most of you will have heard of EVE Online, space drama sandbox extraordinaire. The Iceland-based developers of said MMO host a convention in Reykjavík every year, called Fanfest. During Fanfest 2013, there was (for the first time, but hopefully not the only time) a series of panels under the motto "Making EVE Real", where guest speakers from private companies were invited to talk about topics that appear in the game, but may soon exist in real life as well. And thankfully, these panels were recorded on video and made available online. I personally found watching these panels great fun, and I think that anyone with an interest in near-future space development (or in the case fo the first video, something more theoretical) will enjoy them as well. What do you think? Do these speakers have a point? Can what they plan to do, really be done? Or are they crazy and will go bankrupt in short order? And if they suceeded, what would it mean for space development in the coming years? It may also be fun looking up where these companies are now, almost a year later... Video 1: Richard Obousy of Icarus Interstellar wants to travel faster than light. (Brief audio issue at the start, gets fixed after a minute) Video 2: Chris Lewicki of Planetary Resources wants to go asteroid mining. Video 3: Michael Laine of LiftPort wants to build a space elevator... but not the way you think. Fanfest 2014 is coming up in May, I believe. Let's hope they have another series of interesting guest speakers there. Because one thing is for sure... we seem to be on the cusp of an era of private space development enterprises. The number of ambitious startups will only go up in the near future.