NASA using Orbiter?

[Ark]

If NASA's history is anything to go by, that Moonbase Alpha pilot project is the only thing you are ever going to see. However, there is a chance that your grandchildren might get to play the MMO.

Given what people did with it, I can understand NASA's hesitation to pursue that project any further. :lol:

 

[N_Molson]

:rofl:

 

[TerraMimic]

Given what people did with it, I can understand NASA's hesitation to pursue that project any further.

That's what people will do to ANY game. I tried playing a round recently and some moron was trying to crash the server by spawning as many hoses as possible until the lag was so bad it was completely unplayable. These things happen, there's not much anyone can do about it, unless you have server admin priveleges.

 

[Urwumpe]

That's what people will do to ANY game. I tried playing a round recently and some moron was trying to crash the server by spawning as many hoses as possible until the lag was so bad it was completely unplayable. These things happen, there's not much anyone can do about it, unless you have server admin priveleges.

You could also make the number of hoses finite.

 

[TerraMimic]

True. But that's still not the point. The game is also supposed to emphasize teamwork. But that doesn't stop the other players from undoing your repair efforts as fast as you can complete them.

 

[T.Neo]

I think it is evidence that any game without shooting, aliens, or scantily clad women simply won't become popular, and NASA is wasting their time trying to make something as boring as a lunar base fun to the general public. :shifty:

 

[Tacolev]

Well... NASA just needs to be smart about this sort of thing. If anything the whole Moonbase Alpha buffoonery has firmly primed a large internet audience with something instantly recognizable.

So much of success in internet PR is showing you actually understand and are in on the call-and-response feature of a popular meme about you. Do you have any idea how popular an official NASA media would be if it went along with what the whole moonbase alpha thing?

 

[Urwumpe]

True. But that's still not the point. The game is also supposed to emphasize teamwork. But that doesn't stop the other players from undoing your repair efforts as fast as you can complete them.

Yes, but that is why you can in most games vote/"vote" such people from your server.

 

[CrimsonDoc]

The google-fu is strong with this one.

---------- Post added at 08:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:57 PM ----------

All I can say about this is, what a waste of MFD screens! I would kill for a cockpit with 13 MFD screens! ... 11 of them display earth orbit and 2 display a docking scenario. I guess I could forgive the multiple use of the docking MFD, since one is for the pilot and the other is for the co-pilot.

These astronauts should be sent back to Orbiter Training College! :lol:

 

[n72.75]

So, do Martin or Coolhand know about this yet?

 

[Keatah]

Given what people did with it, I can understand NASA's hesitation to pursue that project any further. :lol:

Moonbase Alpha provides a realistic simulation of life on a natural satellite - YouTube

It's this same immaturity throughout society that holds back the space program.

 

[T.Neo]

It's this same immaturity throughout society that holds back the space program.

Off topic here, but it's actually cost, politics, and understandable disinterest... :shifty:

Immaturity or not, 60% of Americans apparently like the idea of a space program. Can't really argue with that, I guess.

It's just that stuff like Moonbace Alpha is (I would imagine) relatively boring to most people, because of its subject matter and gameplay. I may be wrong, I haven't played it, but I can't help but think that it is a valid reaction that some people, at least, have to it. It isn't like America's Army and stuff like that. Those sort of 'shooter', violent/military orientated videogames are more popular because they tap into primal human emotions.

Sometimes it is just legitimately soothing to graphically end the life of a human-shaped bunch of polygons.

More so than driving NASA's latest Powerpoint Rover to some hose on the Moon.

 

[Keatah]

Off topic here, but it's actually cost, politics, and understandable disinterest... :shifty:

Immaturity or not, 60% of Americans apparently like the idea of a space program. Can't really argue with that, I guess.

It's just that stuff like Moonbace Alpha is (I would imagine) relatively boring to most people, because of its subject matter and gameplay. I may be wrong, I haven't played it, but I can't help but think that it is a valid reaction that some people, at least, have to it. It isn't like America's Army and stuff like that. Those sort of 'shooter', violent/military orientated videogames are more popular because they tap into primal human emotions.

Sometimes it is just legitimately soothing to graphically end the life of a human-shaped bunch of polygons.

More so than driving NASA's latest Powerpoint Rover to some hose on the Moon.

I never found it all that appealing to murder and maim onscreen figures.

As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to manned missions, Nasa seemingly launches a new one every month, fueled by Powerpoint.

It also seems that the actual trend we have today is this.

1- Send an unmanned probe of a sorts to someplace.
2- Collect all the data and perform analysis.
3- Create virtual worlds and promises of grand expeditions.
4- Create a comprehensive manned mission to what was just explored and probed via PowerPoint.
5- Give monthly presentations .
6- Find something else to explore and repeat the cycle.

Spinning round and round and not really going anywhere.
First it was the moon, then it was mars. Now it's the asteroids. What'll it be next year?

It seems the public is quite interested in these PowerPoint rockets and stuff, moreso than the actual trials and tribulations of funding and building a real mission. Virtual missions, like this MoonBase thing are just that. So aren't we really doing a virtual exploration and making it available to everybody? It's just the way of disseminating the mission results; they're done in a way to get info to the public, while at the same time fatten the pockets of those pet-project leaders giving the presentations.

NASA is a *REAL* VSA that just happens to thoroughly research stuff with real unmanned hardware - probes and stuff!

 

[Codz]

NASA is a *REAL* VSA that just happens to thoroughly research stuff with real unmanned hardware - probes and stuff!

I've never seen a VSA put a man on the Moon or a space station in orbit.:lol:

 

[Izack]

NASA is a *REAL* VSA that just happens to thoroughly research stuff with real unmanned hardware - probes and stuff!

Doesn't that disqualify it from the 'Virtual' part of VSA? Isn't it just an SA, or an A(nalogue/ctual)SA?

 

[T.Neo]

As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to manned missions, Nasa seemingly launches a new one every month, fueled by Powerpoint.

It also seems that the actual trend we have today is this.

1- Send an unmanned probe of a sorts to someplace.
2- Collect all the data and perform analysis.
3- Create virtual worlds and promises of grand expeditions.
4- Create a comprehensive manned mission to what was just explored and probed via PowerPoint.
5- Give monthly presentations .
6- Find something else to explore and repeat the cycle.

Spinning round and round and not really going anywhere.
First it was the moon, then it was mars. Now it's the asteroids. What'll it be next year?

It seems the public is quite interested in these PowerPoint rockets and stuff, moreso than the actual trials and tribulations of funding and building a real mission. Virtual missions, like this MoonBase thing are just that. So aren't we really doing a virtual exploration and making it available to everybody? It's just the way of disseminating the mission results; they're done in a way to get info to the public, while at the same time fatten the pockets of those pet-project leaders giving the presentations.

Well, yeah. You see, NASA is caught in a recursive loop of pork politics, overeager engineers with pet projects, and real engineering problems.

I'm sorry, but it gets to the point where NASA should just stop trying to design things. It does not end well. NASA can do R&D, but when it comes to space hardware... they need to come up with a list of requirements, send them out to contractors, and then fund the winning responses on a reward basis.

I have an idea for the guys who keep coming up with PowerPoint spacecraft. Turn your cute ideas into Orbiter addons where they will actually benefit people somehow, and get a job doing something useful (doesn't matter if it isn't a very nice job, you'll have plenty of fun designing powerpoint ships for Orbiter for ever more).

:rofl:

NASA is a *REAL* VSA that just happens to thoroughly research stuff with real unmanned hardware - probes and stuff!

Probes for surface science are like trial software. It costs far less and it has some of the features, but it just isn't as good as the Full Version.

The problem is that the Full Version is evil payware.

I've never seen a VSA put a man on the Moon or a space station in orbit.

Unfortunately because of the restrictions in our world, actual progress being made by the manned program is not what it could be. It's a thing that has to work properly, it can't just justify itself by standing there and looking pretty (which means flying anemic missions in the best case, building PowerPoint rockets in the worst case).

 

[Keatah]

I always look forward to unmanned missions far more than the manned missions. Why? It is simple. An unmanned mission has a much better chance of getting done and producing real pictures and real scientific data.

While both manned and unmanned missions are affected by politics, the manned ones always end up getting canceled far more often.

While both U and M generate PowerPoint hardware. The U plans get revised quickly and can often degenerate into something that is actually workable. A recent example of this is Juno. J was supposed to be some sort of Grand Tour of the Jovian system, instead J deteriorated and compromised its way into what we just launched.

Let me put it another way. Playing MoonBase is fun. Making MoonBase happen in real-life is not fun. Standard issue stupidity built into every human makes it that way.

 

[Turbinator]

Anyone here remember the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter?

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_Icy_Moons_Orbiter"]Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

[Tacolev]

JIMO is a victim of NASA's structural problems which should be talked about more.

In addition to being a tremendously capable scientific vehicle, this mission would have actually laid some rails for nuclear-electric propulsion, taking it out of the projector and all the way to Jupiter. It's exactly the kind of mission NASA is about, or could be about if it got away from the delusion that congress was going to give it another Apollo-scale blank check without some overwhelming national mandate and political will.

Instead we got Constellation...

 

[Codz]

Instead we got Constellation...

And we didn't even get that...