Recent content by T.Neo

There's also the NASA logo seen in Interstellar;

That still doesn't make sense, if Earth's carrying capacity for a human population is severely limited in such a scenario it will probably still remain habitable in some form- it wouldn't be a good outcome, obviously, but it's a number of notches below "planet is destroyed". And even if we...

I think we really need to look at various attributes of fusion research projects over time- plasma density, neutron flux, fusion gain, and a variety of other factors. The lack of a breakeven reactor for the last several decades and statements like "20 years away for the last 50 years" make it...

This is a poor map of what Earth would look like if the topography were inverted. For starters, the 'mountains' and soforth on the 'former' seafloors do not correlate to actual bathymetry whatsoever. The maps made by the author of Planetocopia are far better in this regard. Here's Earth with...

No. That holds true for an SSTO, but the general consensus is that a reusable TSTO can be built largely with modern materials and chemical propulsion (the question is simply whether or not an RLV could be economically viable) unless one is assuming very conservative values. I would not...

That's why a TSTO is better; the second stage, although it has to undergo 'full' orbital re-entry, can do a 'once-around' recovery, whereas the second stage of a three-stage vehicle will have both a higher re-entry velocity than the first stage, and be unable to be recovered near the launch...

Planting seeds of dissent is difficult due to the political situation; I'm not entirely sure how economic warfare would work as there's not really anything you can trade between the two planets that can't be more economically manufactured in-situ. Basically. Venusian counterattacks to...

Well, it is quite obvious that modern lift and spaceflight capabilities are woefully inadequate; the next step is to determine what technology and infrastructure is necessary. What is the necessary size and disposition of the forces needed to invade Venus? How should they be landed on the...

As much infrastructure intact as possible, as per the .pdf. General information about Venus- geographic and maritime surveys, satellite images and soforth are publically available, but military surveillance will obviously be required. That would be a lot more difficult than using a warhead to...

Space combat is something that has been discussed many times before on this forum; however, discussion on the subject has mostly involved technical debate, with the uncertainty of tactical and strategic influences on these matters clouding things to a large degree. Thus, I have decided to start...

Small correction: it is not his funeral, but rather his memorial. The funeral is to be held on Sunday in his childhood home of Qunu in the Eastern Cape.

Madiba is renowned as a hero worldwide, but especially so here in South Africa. Here he is regarded as a national Founding Father. In the US, banknotes are emblazoned with images of people such as Franklin, Jefferson and Washington. In SA we have Mandela. Rest in piece, sir. :(

Awesome space rockets? That's my area of expertise! :P

The simple answer to the re-entry problem is to study the design aspects of the large number of VTOVL SSTO concept that have come before. Things like the DC-X or the Bono concepts would be a good start; if you're looking at base-first re-entry, you may want to consider a plug-nozzle engine. If...

Apologies for being off topic here, but howzit! Welcome to the forum from SA! :)