The problem there is that propulsion systems are still improving and the nearest planet is still a over a year away. During which time there's massive radiation exposure to worry about. A new propulsion system that would halve that would drastically reduce the problems of radiation sickness and death on the voyage.

As far as extra solar system planets go, or even ones further out, even a relatively minor improvement on efficiency could result in decades or even centuries being taken off the transit time.

No, IIRC, that was a sensor failure during a storm where visibility was presumably shit. Under conditions like that it wouldn't have mattered whether it was man or machine flying, the result was more or less inevitable.

The point I was making is that this is still the same laser as ever, the fact that they've added nifty controls to it, doesn't change the fact that it's still the same laser as before. They've just added more options and increased the flexibility.

That's not surprising, the components are heavy and dense. Whereas the ISS is mostly air.

They would, most of those facilities is dedicated to cooling and shielding. They may not be able to use the reactor from a sub, and I'm pretty sure they couldn't, but that's merely because they're designed for terrestrial use and aren't designed to be put onto a rocket.

The other issue is that putting nuclear things into orbit is something that has to be done cautiously. If they blow up or fail to make it into orbit, they'll spew tons of radioactive particles all over the place. And paranoid states might think it's an excuse to put nukes into space.

But, technically putting something the size of a nuclear reactor from a sub into orbit should be doable.

Nope, even when I have a crapload of resources, I dislike losing them. They're like an extension of me. Sort of like my camera, it's an extension of me, so I treat it as if it's a part of my body.

It might be maladaptive psychologically, but you get much better results like that.

My parents can hook their record player up to a computer, does that mean that the record player is digital?

The fact is that the laser is just a laser, they've added some cool technology to it, but it's still the same laser that it always was. Using digital controls doesn't make for a digital laser, there've been digital controls for years.

That was my thought, premium still has ads and not everything can be shown on the TV screen. I'm still trying to figure out precisely what it is that they're charging for.

The thing that pissed me off the most though was the waiting period on programming.

I fail to see how that's digital, but it's a cool advancement none the less. The beam itself is still just a laser beam.

You'd be surprised. I hate letting my units get destroyed when I'm playing an RTS, it's hardly a shocker that people using real robots on the battlefield might get a bit attached to them after controlling a small number of them as they maneuver to their target.

I take it you haven't heard of electro-gonorrhea the noisy killer.

You seriously think that a robot can't become contaminated? Anyways, that's what quarantine is for. In the extremely unlikely case that there's something on a planet with no lifeforms similar to humans, there is a virus or bacteria that's harmful to us, what do you think the odds of us picking it up is?

Pretty much zero. Even with the flu, if you stay 10 feet away from other people and don't put your hands to your face the likelihood of catching it is minimal. And that a virus that's adapted to spreading easily amongst humans, can you imagine one that's never encountered humans before? It's unlikely to even be capable of infecting human DNA.

I love how you pretend like this hasn't been a problem over the last couple decades. Magically when they passed the ACA suddenly the health care rates became unaffordable. The reality is that the ACA was a conservative proposal that the Democrats barely got passed because it was the best they could do.

The fact that you're willfully ignorant of the trend in insurance costs is adequate justification for calling you misinformed.

Nexus 4 was $250, I'm not sure if you can still get them and I'm guessing the upcoming Nexus 5 or whatever they're going to call it is going to be similarly priced before too long. The number of features that you really need and aren't affordable has come down a lot over the years. Screens can't get too much larger without no longer fitting in my pocket and the touch screens are pretty good.

And yes, it definitely does have a bearing on this. Back when it was free, they just had to justify it being good enough to risk bricking the cell phone and voiding the warranty. Now they have to justify bricking the phone, voiding the warranty and paying for that. Meanwhile if you get a decent phone that hasn't had all that carrier crap loaded onto it, the OS is fairly good.

And you failed to provide any evidence in your post either. Just another misinformed moron spreading FUD about the health care overhaul without even bothering to understand what the reality is.