I've just been added to the editorial board for the NSS Space Settlement Journal, an online peer-reviewed journal for articles related to space settlement.

Version 0.18 of the game is now available!

The screenshot above shows many of the new features: structural tubes, shell materials, analysis for any orbit, XYZ axis indicator… and those are just the things visible at one time!

We also spent over a week getting set up to properly code-sign the game itself.  Code signing is one of those annoying things that nobody enjoys, but it has to be done, otherwise Mac and Windows gets all nervous and claims that the file is dangerous.  On Windows, we even took it one farther and added a standard installer that guides you through the installation process.  So, there should be no more hurdles for players who just want to play the game.

Check out the road map to see where we’re going, and the release notes to see where we’ve been!

Just to let everyone know what we're up to... we've finished most of the tickets for version 0.18, but now we're working on getting the apps properly code-signed.

Code signing is a necessary step to avoid those scary "Unknown publisher" dialogs that appear on both Mac and Windows.  Depending on what version of the OS you're running, these might claim the file is damaged or can't be run.  All untrue, of course.  But on recent versions of Mac OS X, you can't even run such an app by just double-clicking; you have to right-click, select "Open" from the contextual menu, and then click the Open button in the "Danger! Danger!" dialog that appears.

Code signing satisfies these nervous operating systems by creating a chain of encrypted "certificates" that lead back to some trusted authority, who has verified that we're a real entity on the up-and-up.  In the case of Mac OS X, that authority has to be Apple.  We've had an Apple developer account (actually, several) for years, so this was no problem.

In the case of Windows, Microsoft doesn't actually code-sign or issue trust certificates.  Instead they have a list of third-party certificate authorities that are known to the OS.  Unfortunately, Apple isn't one of these.  So, we're currently in the process of applying for a certificate from Codomo.  Since we have just relocated from Colorado to Arizona, that might be a bit thorny... please keep your fingers crossed!

There is a space conference called "New Worlds 2015" happening in Austin on October 16-17.  From the website:

Quote:This year the New Worlds Institute presents its inaugural annual space conference and celebration.  Featuring top level academic sessions on such topics as space habitats, resources, transportation systems and international policy, New Worlds brings together the best of the best when it comes to those setting our course towards the Moon, Mars and the Free Space between worlds, from NASA to commercial New Space companies. In parallel, specialized workshops and a cutting-edge student design competition and educational program will create a fully rounded experience that can speak to and inspire people of all types and all generations.

Unlike any other space conference ever, New Worlds, while built on a foundation of hard-core science and engineering, is also a celebration. Including art and music with diverse events ranging from a black tie gala celebrating the giants on whose shoulders we stand and recognizing those educating the next generation to an electronic dance festival that will inspire the next generation. It creates a platform for the heroes and experts who got us where we are today in space to inspire new ideas and concepts in the minds of those who will disrupt today’s conception of what tomorrow can be.

High Frontier is about orbital colonies, but there's been a lot of talk lately about planetary colonies, especially on Mars (even though the Moon would make far more sense).  So I've been thinking about what would be required to make a decent colony on (or below) a planetary surface.

The big problem with living in caves or buried tunnels on the Mars or Moon is the gravity.  We don't know that 1/6 or 1/3 G is enough for kids to grow up healthy.  The only substitute for gravity is acceleration, and in practical terms, that means spinning.  In an orbital colony, that's no big deal; but on a planetary colony, you're spinning something surrounded by a large (planet-sized), non-spinning mass of dirt and rock.  So how fast that interface is going by matters.  It's very much like a train on Earth: the potential for disaster goes up with the speed.

So, what kinds of speeds are we talking about?  I did some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations to find out:

Interesting essay on the need for artificial gravity research over at The Space Review.


I couldn't agree more.  After all these decades, we really should have some idea how much artificial gravity is needed for human health, and what our real rotation tolerances are.

Anybody who plays High Frontier knows that these factors greatly impact how we build livable cities in space!

One of our alert Windows users writes:

Quote:When I unpack the release 0.17 ZIP, Norton Internet Security identifies cInput.dll and HighFrontier.exe as unsafe files and auto-removes them.  I'm sure it's mis-identifying something and it's probably just on my end, but wanted to let you know in case you had any ideas of what might be causing that.  It hasn't happened to me on any previous releases.

It's finally out!  We released version 0.17 of High Frontier today.

For the full story (and lots of pictures!), check out the blog post... and then come back here to tell us what you think!

We're adding a lot of new buildings for version 0.17, including this cool donut shop:

Yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense in most cases, but players are certainly going to experiment with having windows without mirrors on their hab modules:



...and when they do, we have to decide what light level to simulate inside.

Now in design mode, we don't have the light direction quite what it should be; it should be coming straight in from the side, but the harsh shadows make it difficult to work that way, so we've angled the light a bit here.

But once you actually build your colony, it's oriented perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, which means that the light will be coming in straight.  So if you've got a torus, or a cylinder with inverted endcaps, those windows are seeing nothing but starlight.

But if you have a sphere or a cylinder with outward endcaps, then the windows do see some sunlight.  Much of it would bounce right off, of course, given the low angle to the sun, but some of it would get in and bounce around inside (especially if the windows are diffuse, as I assume they would probably be).

This is where it gets really hand-wavy, though... how well lit is that?  Just in terms of area, if you look at one of these spheres from the end (as when using them with a mirror), the windows are about 50% of the presented area.  But from the side, the area presented is much smaller, more like 25%.  So that's a 50% reduction or so.

Or you could look at it this way: with a mirror, 100% of the windows are receiving sunlight, but without it, only 50% of the windows are lit (and much of that is at an extremely low angle), so that also means 50% or less light getting inside.  Waving frantically, I say we peg the amount of light you can get this way at 40%.

For a cylinder, the situation is much the same, except that if your endcaps aren't hemispheres, you're going to get proportionally less light as you flatten them.  And of course we also need to take into account the length of the cylinder... even when you're using mirrors, it makes sense that the longer the cylinder, the less light (per unit area) you're getting from the same windows.

Finally, there's barbells.  These ones are really complex.  Each bell obviously faces away from the sun half the time, but when its facing the sun, whether it's shadowed or not depends on whether the number of bells is even or odd, and (if odd) how big the hub is.  And of course even if you have a tiny hub and 3 bells, the sunlight is going to be going on and off at the same rate as your spin (e.g. every 15-30 seconds).  If that doesn't drive your residents up a tree, I don't know what will!

(And in the mirrorless cylinder or sphere, though the light would be a constant amount, the angle of the light would cycle at the same rate... less annoying than cycles of light/darkness, but still pretty annoying I bet.)