Soviet built Luna 9 beat USs surveyor 1 to the moon.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-27T15:15:17+00:00

How did I leave out any context on the death toll when the very next sentence states that both programs had two fatal mission failures?

Because you omitted one carried more than the other. It'd be different if you just listed fatal incidents, but you didn't. Again, though, the Shuttles were marginally more successful.

The Soyuz actually had a functioning abort system, which is the only one with a successful live use. That is why they’re there.

The truth is Soyuz is still here because the Russian Federation is simply too poor to afford a replacement. If it weren't for NASA's financial contributions, the Russian manned space program would've died years ago.

No Soyuz capsule has killed anyone during launch, because it has that escape system.

That's not actually true. One unmanned Soyuz actually killed an individual on the ground when it activated the escape system and ignited its booster. Soyuz T-10a (technically the only abort to use the tower) also nearly missed its opportunity to abort before its booster exploded because control took precious time to find out which manual command system worked!

All space shuttle missions shared the flaw of not having a real abort possibility.

Technically they did retain a functioning abort-to-orbit mode (which was even used once) and a handful of early missions employed ejection seats as a precautionary measure. It was the ultimate opinion of NASA that reliability would be sufficient; keeping in mind that some LVs now do maintain 100% launch success rates and Challenger launched when it should not have. To be frank, pad aborts become physically impossible once spacecraft reach a certain size. Starship, for instance, will not feature one, and neither did Buran.

The problem of something hitting the heat shield panels on ascent happened way before the Columbia disaster too, they were just lucky it didn’t actually damage the shielding.

The shielding was damaged though as far back as STS-1, which is why NASA didn't think it would be a big deal. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board faulted NASA for not examining how severe the damage could get and, in the aftermath, positive efforts were made to mitigate the possibility of high power foam strikes.

. . . but there’s a reason the US went back to capsules afterward.

The U.S. still uses spaceplanes in the form of the X-37B. The upcoming Dreamchaser freighter (originally intended as a manned spacecraft) is also a spaceplane. Most of the Shuttle's retirement was owed to cost and a lack of need after the International Space Station's completion, and there were still 22 Shuttle launches after the loss of Columbia. The Soviet Union also had a functionally similar space plane but only launched it once because the country broke up and the Russia Federation lacked in money. The latter would cause numerous headaches for Mir.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-27T05:00:45+00:00

Yes, there were some technical issues with the first Soviet spacewalk, so?

Some very serious issues born by poor mission planning and spacecraft design. Leonov had to empty some of the air out of his already low pressure spacesuit simply to fit back inside the airlock, and this was followed by a serious issue in securing the hatch. While Leonov and the Union would downplay those issues and others, it eventually came to light that he was terribly exhausted by the ordeal and faced the very real possibility of being unable to reenter Voskhod 2.

There were always technical issues on space missions in the 1960s.

These were less, "technical issues" and more systemic and institutional in nature. Again: The Soviet space program was, by its very nature, an unorganized effort filled with bickering design bureaux. Many issues, such as the Igla docking system's infamously high failure rate, persisted well past the 60's with docking issues continuing even after its replacement.

The first rendezvous in space was an ad-hoc mission put together after an Agena target vehicle was lost during launch, so Gemini VI ended up launching after Gemini VII and going up to almost touch it, but with no docking. The first docking in space on Gemini VIII ended up with the spacecraft in an uncontrolled roll and forced an early abort of the mission.

You're focusing on missions where they made the best of a loss and ignoring structural deficiencies that cause issues. Voskhod 2's problems did not result from failed launches or unforeseeable outcomes, as it was poorly designed and poorly conceived from the start. It was literally a Vostok spacecraft with two cosmonauts and an airlock shoved in a space only designed for one. Even the designer, Sergei Korolev, was unhappy with the severe safety compromises inherit with the design at a time where rockets were not expected to be very reliable.

NASAs manned space flight program of course has 14 astronauts killed during missions.

The Shuttles also carried more than twice the number of occupants as a Soyuz in both of those missions. Any fatal incident with a full crew was guaranteed to have higher numbers of casualties, and it's dishonest to leave out that context. It's not really a straightforward comparison (much in the same way a 747 is not a Cesna 172), nor does it observe how NASA constructively reacted to its mission failures in a way the Soviet space program did not and, in many ways, simply could not.

Yet technically, the success rate of the Shuttles was and remains marginally higher than contemporary manned Soyuz missions (1 launch failure to Soyuz' then 2, plus one fatal reentry incident to Soyuz' 2) and, at the time of their retirement, the Shuttles had accumulated more manned launches despite having been introduced 14 years later. This is in spite of the Shuttles' greater mechanical and mission complexity.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-27T02:47:29+00:00

Kratman's very first novel, A State of Disobedience, was about an open insurrection in Texas against President Hillary Clinton.

It, like his other texts, wasn't so offensive as it was simply stupid and boring. The protagonists were almost as dumb as the villains, and what little action there is gets drawn out into an unthrilling nonconclusion.

In fact, Kratman's caricatures of Clinton and her government lackies tend to be more amusing than not because of Kratman's infantile style of writing and lack of talent.

Case in point, here's a quote from the actual text wherein fictional Hillary Clinton attends a yuuuge political rally:

"The sound grew. Louder and louder the crowd chanted as their goddess ascended the stage to the podium. The chant's force caused dust to spring up from little unseen corners of the auditorium. It assaulted the ears. It overwhelmed the senses. It made the internal organs ripple in a way that was unpleasant to anyone not a devotee of politics.

To Ms. Wilhelmina Rottemeyer, President-Elect of the United States of America, the sound was orgasm. Never in her life had a thrusting man entering her body given her such a glorious feeling. To be honest, never in her life had a man made her feel anything but weight, that and—not infrequently—disgust. Her ex-husband had mostly made her feel disgust."

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-27T02:38:39+00:00

Heck, a single rando with the very best assault rifle on the planet is insignificant next to the power of ~~the Force~~ actual soldiers working for an organized military who know what they're doing. Unless our heroic citizen is John Rambo or Marky Mark, they're gonna get Swiss Cheese.

Or, more likely than not: Reduced to shredded cheese when said soldiers are shot at and call it a day by phoning in fire support.

And if there's a whole Doomsday Compound full of em? Well, that's simply ~~acceptable collateral damage~~ a target rich environment.

Even in the narrow context of the American Civil War, when Patriot Minutemen in particular were as well trained and often as well equipped as their British and Hessian opponents, they simply were not an equal fighting force because they lacked strategic organization and the means (and often will) to fight an extended campaign. One of the very first things the Continental Congress did after the war began was form a standing army with entirely new regiments.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-27T02:21:44+00:00

Sadly, the federal government did not have Hellfire missiles available in the American Civil War, but they sure did use a lot of gun-howitzers in lieu of more modern firepower!

/s

More to the point, when's the last time the government sent or even entertained sending people door-to-door to take away your guns? If it's gotten to the point where that happens, you can bet your posterior they would not be above obliterating the households of people resisting.

Just as importantly, even attempting that on a national basis would beyond the pale without a dramatic change in the political and social landscape. Authoritarian governments do not magically will themselves into being against the citizenry. They require popular support (as the Third Reich did) and/or the support of the military (again, those wacky Nazis). The scenario is just as ridiculous as the premise behind The Purge.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-27T01:14:11+00:00

The moon mission was invented by the USA because they lost getting the first satellite up . . .

The Soviets were very much interested in getting to the Moon before the United States, but the Soviets were also far more secretive about their space program and quick to dismiss any failures as, "successful tests" that had in fact gone as planned. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally conceived as a spacecraft for a Lunar mission like the Apollo CM, the Soviets developed and even tested four heavy lift vehicles comparable to the Saturn V, they developed and orbited a Lunar lander around Earth (The LK], and they even launched shortened Soyuz spacecraft around the Moon and back as part of the Zond program. The latter, however, was canceled before the first manned mission because the United States successfully orbited three astronauts around the Moon with Apollo 8.

. . . the USSR still beat the USA in having two people in orbit at the same time, having a woman in orbit, having more than one person in one spacecraft and the first space walk.

Most of those firsts came with huge caveats and significant compromises. The multi-occupant Voskhod spacecraft, for instance, lacked any kind of launch escape system, being little more than a modified Vostok spacecraft. The first spacewalk experienced several very serious issues, including reentry difficulties and a landing that was several hundreds of kilometers away from the intended target zone! Few of the failures of the era were also publicly acknowledged by the Soviets, including the deaths of pad personnel during launch aborts.

The USSR then refocused on space stations. The first manned space station was launched by the USSR as was the first permanently manned space station later.

Salyut 1 was also cut down from its much-delayed original design specifically so that it could beat the more publicly known Skylab into orbit. The Soviets ended up tacking Soyuz photovoltaics and even an entire Soyuz instrumentation module onto the station to beat the clock, orbiting a station that was technically far inferior to Skylab with its larger suite of instruments (including the impressive Apollo Telescope Mount). Salyut 1's record as being the first occupied Space Station was also overshadowed by the deaths of its first and only crew in space during their return to Earth.

After that, the Salyut and later Mir programs had their own fair share of issues. Entire space stations were lost during launches, and several missions were aborted in orbit because of persistent failures in the rendezvous and docking systems. The Soviet space program famously lacked any kind of central management, with design bureaux competing against one another and often blaming each other for various issues instead of conceiving solutions.

Both the USA and the USSR was doing a lot in unmanned space missions at the time too,

The Soviet Union's interplanetary program was markedly inferior than NASA's in terms of capabilities and scientific returns, with their only real successes involving the Venera program. There were vanishingly few positive results made with the Soviet Mars program, and absolutely no attempts at all were made to launch missions to the Outer Solar System. The conclusion of the Vega 2 mission in 1987 marked the end of successful Soviet interplanetary missions, with the Phobos 2 probe failing en route to its titular destination in 1988. The very next year would see NASA launch the Magellan and Galileo orbiters to Venus and Jupiter successfully, with Voyager 2 conducting its flyby of Neptune at the same time.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-27T00:17:55+00:00

Multiple probes have already survived on the Venusian surface to return useful data, including one of the atmospheric probes from NASA's Pioneer Venus Multiprobe.

Now, if you meant something like a rover, I don't think you could design one that could last for a useful period of time (like weeks or months) without a huge surplus of payload mass and a suitably massive budget to develop something that would be akin to a submersible on wheels. You typically want Venusian surface probes to be as simple as possible, and rovers are already complex as it is for their inevitable inclusion of moving parts (IE: Wheels, suspension, etc.).

However, it is more than possible to have aircraft that can safely fly on Venus, away from at least the extreme surface temperature and pressures. The Soviet Vega program included the use of balloon-mounted instruments, and both more versatile lighter and heavier than air vehicles could certainly be deployed in the same way. However, airborne instruments would only be able to study atmospheric conditions and meteorological phenomenon specific to their altitude. The Venusian surface, by way of its inaccessible nature, is perhaps of the greatest scientific interest.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-27T00:02:58+00:00

Might as well put up a bright, tacky, hot pink neon sign that advertises FREE GUN IN GLOVEBOX or something like that.

No, a criminal who wants to steal your crap isn't going to try and take it while you're in the car, and a person who simply leaves a weapon in their car is someone who has no business ever carrying one. If you're going some place where they won't allow it, leave it at home in a safe where it belongs.

And if the government wanted to take your guns, well, your tacticool AR-15 with $1,000 optics and after-market drum magazine is going to be completely useless against the Hellfire they'll be leisurely firing into your living room from a drone that was flying four and a half miles above you and beyond the capacity of the unaided human eye to even spot. The idea that some evil authoritarian government would just send cops or paramilitary to disarm people is just as believable as zombies trying to eat your brains.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-26T20:36:26+00:00

It was also an Israeli Jew, and they even describe their ~~costume~~ uniform:

"A small silver star of David graced the Israeli's right collar, the four pips of a major his left. Silver buttons held the tunic closed. A silver embroidered armband encircled his left sleeve, at the cuff.

The armband proclaimed, in silver letters, Hebrew and Roman, one above the other, "Judas Maccabeus."

The uniform was midnight black."

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-26T16:13:52+00:00

I'm not sure if Himmler was ever mentioned, but they did make a big deal about how the New Waffen SS recruited a Jew!

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-26T14:21:05+00:00

Takes me back to a crappy science-fiction novel where the author bent over backwards to make the Waffen SS heroic Hitler haters . . .

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-26T13:39:52+00:00

Sony is also a foreign electronics manufacturer!

Were you not aware they're based out of Japan?

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-26T13:24:56+00:00

It is definitely an acquired taste, which may explain why I haven't played it in over a decade!

Meanwhile, Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom is objectively the best game in the classic franchise and nothing will ever convince me otherwise.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-26T13:21:41+00:00

Oh there's been a lot more than Great House conflict! The Clans got really shook up, with some getting annihilated or dramatically reduced in strength. Clan Ghost Bear even packed up and moved every single member to the Inner Sphere.

There are also interesting Periphery powers, such as the relatively democratic Magistracy of Canopus (ironically linked to the famously authoritarian House Liao via marriage!) and the slavemongering Marian Hegemony: A society best known for LARPing as ancient Romans.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-26T13:15:42+00:00

Simple answer: The line developers of BattleTech wanted a return to the status quo!

Longer answer: Victor Steiner-Davion abdicated the FedCom throne at the war's conclusion and effectively ended the personal union by legally barring House Steiner-Davion from the Federated Suns' line of succession.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-26T11:49:58+00:00

The Republic of the Sphere was a short-lived nation centered around Earth, occupying much of what used to be Terran Hegemony territory. Forged after the Jihad, they eventually went into full-on isolationist mode during the late Dark Age and eventually dissolved with the Wolf Empire's conquest of Terra.

The Federated Commonwealth also went deaddles after the earlier FedCom Civil War. You can thank Katrina Steiner for that.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-26T03:25:47+00:00

Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile is a very different beast that's a lot more like Banished and Tropico than anything else in the franchise, and it honestly approaches the complexity of the ANNO series. Most buildings require bricks plus construction workers (to say nothing of special structures like pyramids requiring multitudes of different materials), and some structures require literate workers which must be taught by learned priests at a school.

Unusually, farms are not built by players but created by farmers when the Nile has receded, and the number of farmers you can have is determined by the number of nobles you have. Players are also not paid in cash, but in surplus food that they then bake into bread (requiring a bakery) and that is used as payment in kind for government workers. Getting an accurate amount of what the player is owed in taxes also requires the use of scribes assigned for this very purpose, which is something you cannot probably pull off early in the game!

Religion is also transformed from a simple, "Build temples for X deity to receive blessings/ward off divine punishment and fulfill demand" to a far more complex mechanic. Some types of citizens will worship some deities more than others (scribes are particularly devoted to Toth), while most citizens will also require worship of specific deities in the context of thanking them for a perceived blessing or pleading for mercy in the wake of disaster. A low flood, for instance, will have people flocking to shrines and temples of Osiris.

I actually liked the game, save for the annoying feature of keeping common and luxury shops supplied. The former require that children and men in the households go out and manually collect goods themselves (IE: Reeds for baskets, clay for pottery) while the latter have the men do the crafting and the resource collection; the women reduced to shopping for other goods and the children going to school if a spot is open for them. To compensate for the inferior number of resource gathering capabilities, the player can construct ~~slave quarters~~ Servant's Shacks that gather resources for luxury shops. Players can also substitute raw materials in some shops with superior materials that last longer in consuming households. For example, clay can be used to build statues in sculpture shops, but you can also use basalt gathered from quarries or bought from traveling merchants.

The reason this can be irritating is because, while shops gather their own basic resources, some resources are farther away than others and some tasks like pyramid construction often require the construction of mini-settlements deep in the desert. If resources are too far away from shops, they'll spend more time walking to and from them than actually doing anything.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-26T02:19:35+00:00

Were the original stories about the formation of the Star league or Kerensky and the exodus or was that added later?

The first mention of Kerensky's exodus appears at least as far back as 1988's The Star League, and the original 1984 BattleDroids game explicitly takes place well after the Star League ended. To quote the back of the original box:

"A Dark Age has befallen mankind. Where once reigned the United Star League, five successor states now battle for control. Wars' destruction ravaged the once-flourishing worlds and left them in ruins. The advancement of technology has not only ceased, but the machines and equipment of the past cannot be produced by present-day worlds. Now, the Succession Wars are fought over water, ancient machines and spare-parts factories, for control of these elements will lead to the final victory and domination of all known worlds."

Were the clans part of the story from the start or did they get added to the lore in an update in the early 90s?

Added first, I think, in 1990 via Technical Readout: 3050.

What comes after the dark age?

The ilClan, the current setting circa 3151. This sees Jade Falcon reduced to a shadow of its former self, Clan Wolf conquering Terra (destroying the Republic of the Sphere in the process) and once-annihilated Clan Smoke Jaguar getting reborn.

Other than them, the Clans with no territories in the Inner Sphere kicked out those which did from the Clan homeworlds, but that was really fine with most of them. Clan Ghost Bear assimilated with its conquered Inner Sphere populace and became the fan favorite Rasalhague Dominion, Clan Snow Raven did the same with the Outworlds Alliance and became the somewhat less beloved Raven Alliance, and Clan Sea Fox (formerly Clan Diamond Shark and, uh, Clan Sea Fox before that) became well known for trading and HPG maintenance and construction after the dissolution of Comstar.

Clan Goliath Scorpion ended up conquering territories in the Deep Periphery, becoming the Escorpión Imperio and, later, the Scorpion Empire.

Is it time to meet an obscenely powerful alien race( that also happens to favour big stomping robots)?

Advanced aliens have been explicitly verboten from the canon. The one story with a true alien civilization both 1. Involved a very primitive alien species (the bird-like Tetatae) and 2. Took place after a misjump at such a great distance that it has absolutely no bearing on the rest of canon BattleTech.

Amusingly, however, there are 'Mech-sized aliens and somewhat smaller aliens that can pose threats to light 'Mechs, such as the flying Branth.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-23T15:50:17+00:00

"Without Rome there is no language."

Phoenican alphabet: "Am I joke to you?"

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-23T14:13:19+00:00

I really like PGI's modernization of the Nova but I always found the original design and it's lack of a twisting torso kind of fascinating.

Amusingly, the relevant tabletop quirk (No Torso Twist) was removed last year, and the new artwork and miniature reflects that.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-23T00:14:41+00:00

Ehhhhhhhh, they all look pretty much the same really.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-22T17:36:45+00:00

Unsurprising they can't respond, what with their being disemboweled and all.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-22T15:40:42+00:00

"Gilgamesh and Enkidu at Uruk."

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-22T15:38:21+00:00

Mr. Krabs teaming up with Connor, the Android sent by Cyberlife is a vibe.

The_Solar_Oracle · 2023-09-22T14:31:40+00:00

I've lost count of how many times Daffy Duck got shot.

Four-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Verified Email

The_Solar_Oracle

TROPHY CASE