Health meter

[technicalfool]

I'm guessing that since parts can be "damaged" a number of times before being destroyed, that there's some kind of counter stored for each part. Would it be possible to represent this in the game?

I'm thinking it could be done quite nicely by adding another thermometer-style indicator to the right click menu like the fuel tanks and boosters, or by progressively shading the parts on the left-side staging indicators. Or, perhaps both!

The idea came to me after dragging Gratuitous Space Battles out for another ..well, gratuitous display of destruction. If you have a copy, you'll probably know what I mean by the latter example of part icons getting progressively shaded. It might also go very well with the semi-implemented ability to repair things, as you could wander around with the mouse doing a damage check, before EVAing kerbals (or whatever repair drone some twisted mod author makes up) to the most damaged parts.