Space news...

[Bob Schroeck]

SpaceX successfully tests the "Grasshopper", a rocket that can lift off, hover, and return to earth.  Check out the video, and ignore what the link claims the article is called.

Extraterrestrial "microfossils" found in comet fragments.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Dragonflight]

What worries me is that a strong gust of wind can knock it over, and then you have a very large explosion. A lift-capable vehicle like a glider is inherently safer, because you have more control over the descent stage. And while some may argue the "Flying Brick" didn't have the greatest glide ratio in the world, they never crashed it on landing, despite over a hundred flights.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Logan Darklighter]

Well you probably wouldn't want to launch on a high wind day anyway. But I also think it would just be common sense to keep parachutes in the mix either as a back-up or deployed in tandom with the rockets to guide the vehicle to a safe upright landing. 

[Dragonflight]

For other kinds of space-flight (and a good laugh,) I highly recommend checking out the "Kerbal Space Program".
http://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com
It's like what you get when you combine the Minions from Despicable Me with NASA.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Logan Darklighter]

Dude. 
Way, way, way, WAY ahead of you. ^_^

[Dragonflight]

O_o? You combined the Jupiter Probe with the Eagle?
I'm still trying to enable mods, myself. For some reason, one of them crashes the game every time I go to the launch pad, so I'm having to enable one mod at a time to see which one it doesn't like.
While I've got the various mods that make the Jupiter probe possible, I think the Eagle probe parts I have are pre-0.18.4. Not sure if they'll work with it.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Logan Darklighter]

The Redspar Eagle does have a slight problem. It does need an update for 18.4. I have some modded parts I could send you. I can email them to you. That'll make it work. Although the fuel tanks it uses are still non-compatible with the newer parts. They're working on a new updated Eagle that'll be compatible. 
(And if we're derailing the thread too much, Bob, we can take it elsewhere. ^_^ )

Edit: Oh - and I should mention - The Eagle is docked temporarily with the Discovery there. This was a refueling mission. Which I found a way to make work. But the Eagle's own fuel supplies aren't compatible to transfer over. And the amount it can carry up outside of it's own fuel reserves is not that big. I'm working on a different way to fuel up the Discovery right now. 

[Sweno]

and the 'science' behind the life in the meteorite claim needs some work
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[DHBirr]

A lift-capable vehicle like a glider is inherently safer, because you have more control over the descent stage. 

Two big problems with gliders (they need atmosphere, and they need a smooth landing strip) mean they can only be used for the return to Earth, not setting down on another planet, so we'll still need to develop/improve rocket-descent vehicles if we want to put people on just about any other world.
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[robkelk]

Mars does have an atmosphere... An extremely thin atmosphere, so your glide path would be measured in "orbits" rather than "miles," but it's there...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Sweno]

As Tom Rivenllin at NASA said: Mars has just enough of an atmosphere that you have to deal with it, otherwise it will destroy your spacecraft. On the other hand it doesn't have enough atmosphere to finish the job.
(quote from the nasa 7 minutes of terror video)

we aren't going to land in a survivable fashion on just wings/parasails any time soon.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Ankhani]

As far as flying on Mars, I'll direct you to the relevant xkcd what if? The short answer is you need to go supersonic to gather enough lift to support even a light aircraft, so your maneuverability is crap, and the landing would be very rough.
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

[robkelk]

As far as flying on Mars, I'll direct you to the relevant xkcd what if? The short answer is you need to go supersonic to gather enough lift to support even a light aircraft, so your maneuverability is crap, and the landing would be very rough.

That's if you use a Cessna. NASA's proposals for winged Martian craft look very little like a Cessna.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Dragonflight]

*sigh*. Now I envy you, Logan.
Why?
Because your game *works*!
I try to enable any mod other than MechJeb, and the whole thing crashes. It's so bloody frustrating!
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Logan Darklighter]

Have you tried a full uninstall and re-install and add mods one by one?
I know that's a lot of effort, but... It's the only idea I've currently got for you. Sorry.

Here. Have some pics of a pair of Eagles landed at one of the Mun anomalies as compensation.

[Dragonflight]

*grumble*. More Kerbal issues.
I set up a fresh install, and tested every single mod with the Kerbal Mod Manager over many, many, (many!) restarts. Finally isolated the KW Rocketry mod, which seems to cause crashes a lot.
I finally got everything working, and launched a rocket. It blew up spectacularly. So I went back and fiddled with engines and structural supports. Then, when I went back to the launch pad, the game crashed again.
I've since tested this process over and over. I can build anything I've got, and launch it. But if I go back to the launch pad a second time, for any reason, the game crashes.
Now I've got to figure out what *this* problem is...
Edit: Turns out it's a problem with the program. I sent off a copy of the crash log, and they say it's a bug they've been chasing around for a while. All I can do is wait for 18.5 or better to come out with a fix for the problem. Not a great answer, but at least it's not my system.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Logan Darklighter]

You know, I've noticed more crashes in 18.4 myself. Not to the extremes that you've been experiencing. But it's definitely noticeable. KSP used to almost never crash at all, being very stable. And yeah - hopefully 18.5 will be better. Although IIRC I don't think there will be an 18.5. I think the next version is supposed to be 19.

[Dragonflight]

Well, they stated recently in a dev post that they were going to be doing smaller releases, because of all the time they were making people wait between new updates. They also apparently just recently changed their development system so that it doesn't require that all modules be 100% finished before going out the door, they can just release the ones which are 100%, and release the others as they go.
Btw: On your image page, how did you get that spacedock in orbit? Did you put the whole thing up in one shot? Or do you have an orbital station mod?
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[robkelk]

For the first time, the International Space Station is being commanded by a Canadian astronaut.

(Just thought we might want some space news in the space news thread. Carry on with the game discussion...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Logan Darklighter]

DRAG0NFLIGHT wrote:

---

Btw: On your image page, how did you get that spacedock in orbit? Did you put the whole thing up in one shot? Or do you have an orbital station mod?

I got the whole thing up in one shot. It launched exactly as you see it. It makes physics cry in agony, but the son of a bitch flies. I did lose the file for it unfortunately, But I can recreate it. It needed modding anyway. It was a BITCH to navigate. You could get it into a stable orbit. But good luck getting it into any particular inclination with the craft as it was. 
I made the thing for two reasons. One - this was before I got the modded files that made the cockpit pod work correctly for 18.2. So I made a spaceprobe, unmanned truss and girder system and constructed the Eagle inside that. With the intent of rendezvousing with it in orbit and having the Kerbals jump aboard it there and jettisoning the spacedock. Never got around to that before I lost the game save. 

And two - even though that's unnecessary now, I still think it would be useful for launching for extreme long range missions where you don't want to waste the on-board fuel on getting out of Kerbin's gravity well. 

(In case anyone is wondering what we're talking about - here - )

[/url][url=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Logan_Darklighter/Kerbal/Eagle_Remote_Launch_03.jpg]

[Logan Darklighter]

Speaking of KSP, Eagles, and making physics cry. I checked over on the Kerbal Forums for progress on an updated Eagle. They're working on it. But in the process... well - 
One poster replied with the following - 

Just Bumping for Eagle Love! Plus, this will probably happen a lot... 



Man that horizon indicator needs calibration! "Jeb to KSC, remember when ya said I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn even if I was in it? Well I'm in it, over...."

[Dragonflight]

I was asking because there's a handful of mods I was really keen on working with before I hit that bug. It's called the "Orbital Construction" set, and it's in three files. Supposedly you can construct actual spacedocks.
You add a module to what you put in orbit, and that identifies the object as a spacedock. You can build vehicles with another module which identifies it to the mod as a cargo carrier which supplies the spacedock. Then any craft can be built and toggled to the spacedock, so that it emerges in orbit instead of on the ground. It was my intent to get this working properly and then build the Discovery in orbit.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Logan Darklighter]

Huh! Neat! 
And yeah - the Discovery was launched from the ground too. And whoo boy was THAT a hairy launch! It did work and I got it up into a good stable orbit but I wasted the majority of the fuel supply doing so and I've been learning the intricacies of docking and maneuvering and transferring fuel because currently it's become effectively my orbital "hanger queen" as she waits to be fully fueled. 

The Discovery in fact has been sitting up in orbit for several YEARS worth of game time by now while I've launched a space station, expeditions to other planets with probe craft to scout for anomalies, supplying and fueling the space station itself (which is in a nearby orbit itself), etc etc. 

But soon. Soon it will have enough fuel, and she'll make that journey to Jool. 

[Dragonflight]

Unfortunately, the problem persists in the new .19 release. It looks like the game is becoming a bit of an "elite" game, as you pretty much must have a 64 bit operating system with a minimum of 8GB to run the game. Everyone using a 32 bit OS is pretty much cut out.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[robkelk]

Back to the actual space stuff...

FAQ: Living in Space, with answers by the current commander of the ISS.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012