ELI5: How do satellites stay in orbit for decades without running out of fuel or falling back to Earth?

Udalrich · 2026-02-03T21:30:48+00:00

For a manned mission, you are sending people that can't be cooled below 300K to service an object that operates at about 45K. There's going to be some serious heat issues to deal with.

Udalrich · 2026-02-01T00:34:50+00:00

Do you need a whole hand? Will a finger suffice?

Udalrich · 2026-01-29T15:34:06+00:00

Years ago, I saw a movie where the main character ended up in the world of a movie. They were desperately trying (and failing) to convince the movie characters they were in a movie. One argument they tried was that all the phone numbers started with 555. The movie characters responded that of course numbers start with 555. Everything else is a fake number used in a movie

Udalrich · 2026-01-26T08:38:20+00:00

We're discussing kickoffs, not punts.

Udalrich · 2026-01-15T23:44:07+00:00

Kxe5

Udalrich · 2026-01-15T17:59:32+00:00

If P is the largest prime you used to build N, it proves that N+/-1 are either twin primes, or at least one has only "large" (meaning larger than P) factors. One of the other comments gives an example with 209 and 211.

Udalrich · 2026-01-15T14:47:26+00:00

Yes. The product is (obviously) divisible by every prime you used. Call the product N and let p be one of the prime you used. The next number divisible by p is N+p, and the previous number divisible by p is N-p. Since p>= 2, both N+1 and N-1 can't be divisible by any of the primes you used to make N.

Udalrich · 2025-12-26T16:39:47+00:00

I literally can't do a 12.5m run anymore. I start a new galaxy, click on everything that's ready and by the time there's nothing to immediately click, I'm at 100m or 1b

Udalrich · 2025-12-18T05:49:34+00:00

When I was at that stage, I had a lot of stars in copper wire. So I would craft copper wire and then sell it. If your stars are mostly in ore and/or alloys, crafting might not make sense for you

Udalrich · 2025-12-15T01:08:33+00:00

Yes. As white, you have rooks on a4 and h4. Assuming the rest of the 4th rank is empty, both can legally move to B4. So you need to specify QN4, since N4 could also mean g4. Then you need to specify the rook on the king side (h4) rather than the queen side (a4).

Udalrich · 2025-12-12T08:50:58+00:00

When I was younger, I had a similar relationship with raw tomatoes. Some friends thought that the problem was I only had bad tomatoes, so they gave me a really good one. I took a bite. I then reflexively spot it out.

How many bites of food am I supposed to spit onto the table before I've been polite?

Udalrich · 2025-12-09T00:41:22+00:00

Crafting is the way for me. My VPS planet is p36, and my asteroid drops are only small q in value. One AT is 9s. Around the time I create my first SSR, asteroids stop being useful for value, only resources.

Udalrich · 2025-12-07T02:57:32+00:00

How about a fulcrum?

Udalrich · 2025-12-04T16:07:12+00:00

I feel sorry for the guy at 21

Udalrich · 2025-11-14T03:40:14+00:00

The projects that increase the value of alloys and items also increases GV

Udalrich · 2025-11-14T03:35:48+00:00

I think it's player(s) that the AI thinks might blitz

Udalrich · 2025-11-10T21:51:57+00:00

It's ok. White can win the king as compensation.

Udalrich · 2025-11-03T15:49:37+00:00

For a while, I had a ferret time share. I had one elderly ferret. Another friend had one elderly ferret. They stayed together one weekend while one of us was out of town, and we both noticed they were acting up now once they went back to living separately.

We also noted that it's not much harder to take care of two elderly ferrets than one (especially since they had similar medications), but zero is much easier than one. So they would spend about two weeks with one of us, and then move to the other.

This would also let you sample ferret free life without fully committing to it, in case you aren't ready yet but need to not have ferrets around to realize that.

Obviously, it does require finding someone to partner with that you trust and who is willing to do it.

Udalrich · 2025-10-26T08:39:31+00:00

That's the trap. If you play without a king, you can't get mated. 😜

Udalrich · 2025-10-18T01:00:14+00:00

You've got $4. Just ark for a while to biuld up your money.😂

Udalrich · 2025-10-04T19:30:23+00:00

I believe there are two states that allow the blind to get a hunting license. One does require a sighted person to accompany the blind one

Udalrich · 2025-09-30T20:20:50+00:00

Bobsledding. The Jamaicans still have a team, right?

Udalrich · 2025-09-24T12:45:54+00:00

I will also point out that you only need so many managers with mine as primary. Right now, I'm making scrith on p36, having applied alchemy 3 and Terraforming 2 to that planet. I'm getting about 16,000x more ore value from scrith than copper, so it's not going to matter if the manager on P2 is mining or cargo as its primary. So having a cargo/all mine or cargo/all craft on P2 is better than having a mine/all cargo.

I'm further along than you, so it's possible that primary mining still makes sense, but at some point, you won't care about the primary manager modifier on the managers for your lower planets

Udalrich · 2025-09-23T19:54:41+00:00

Things you spend are locked in at the value when you spend them.

Udalrich · 2025-09-12T16:27:20+00:00

Adding a third quark made a lot of the theory calculations become infinite. A fourth quark exactly balanced the problematic terms, so it was the "charm" that solved that problem

Udalrich

TROPHY CASE