Some Questions about Communication Satellites & Kerbistationary Orbit

[Turk_WLF]

I’m thinking about placing 3 Communication Satellites in a Kerbistationary Orbit; however I have some questions….

1. What is a good number of antennas for a Ground to Ship and/or interlink between the 3 Communication Satellites & Kerbin Space Center (KSC)?

2. I believe 2,863.33 km is Kerbistationary Orbit for Kerbin, I’m just wondering is there a way to launch a Satellite from a standard orbit (80-100 KM) similar what NASA did with the Shuttle Missions (STS-7, STS-21, STS-25, STS-27 & STS-41B) with the PAM (Payload Assist Module)/ PAM-D using MechJeb.

3. Also do you have a favorite/handy Satellite Mod for KSP 1.3?

Thank you for your time & help!

[Aegolius13]

1 hour ago, Turk_WLF said:

I’m thinking about placing 3 Communication Satellites in a Kerbistationary Orbit; however I have some questions….

1. What is a good number of antennas for a Ground to Ship and/or interlink between the 3 Communication Satellites & Kerbin Space Center (KSC)?

2. I believe 2,863.33 km is Kerbistationary Orbit for Kerbin, I’m just wondering is there a way to launch a Satellite from a standard orbit (80-100 KM) similar what NASA did with the Shuttle Missions (STS-7, STS-21, STS-25, STS-27 & STS-41B) with the PAM (Payload Assist Module)/ PAM-D using MechJeb.

3. Also do you have a favorite/handy Satellite Mod for KSP 1.3?

Thank you for your time & help!

I can only speak to #1.  Number of antennas does not really matter; it's the total strength of the antennas that really counts.  And since you get diminishing returns, you're much better off using fewer big antennas rather than a whole bunch of small ones.  

I have a network of 4 commsats at around 1Mm orbit.  The job of these things is to make sure my ships in LKO do not hit dead spots between the ground stations.  I've found that a single 2 Gm relay antenna is more than plenty for this purpose.  

But you might need more oomph if you're planning to route interplanetary communications through them (i.e., if  you have the extra ground stations off).  I would go with at least one 100 GM antenna for this purpose, but you might need more if you're planning to route signals from Eeloo or something.  I put my interplanetary commsats in extremely high polar orbits (i.e., out past the orbit of Minmus) so they spend the least possible amount of time getting occluded.  Then they could easily bounce signals through my 2 GM sats if needed.

 

[Weywot8]

4 hours ago, Turk_WLF said:

I believe 2,863.33 km is Kerbistationary Orbit for Kerbin, I’m just wondering is there a way to launch a Satellite from a standard orbit (80-100 KM) similar what NASA did with the Shuttle Missions (STS-7, STS-21, STS-25, STS-27 & STS-41B) with the PAM (Payload Assist Module)/ PAM-D using MechJeb.

Urm, isn't that essentially adding another stage to you satellite? A simpleTerrier-engine stage that would be equivalent to the PAM. Assumes everything else before that is used to get into standard orbit. Remember to bulk up the first few stages given the extra payload mass. Usually this means adding some SRB's but LF engines work too,

[Spricigo]

 

For the stock beheavior refer to this article

In short:

-A link is needed to transmit science, control unmanned probes, and setup/edit maneuver nodes without a pilot.

-There is two kind of antennas Direct and Relay. The difference its that Relay can act as Communication Nodes in between the vessel you are controlling and KSC, while for this purpose Direct antennas are ignored.

-Each vessel or Ground Station have a antenna power. For Vessel that is

Vessel Antenna Power = Strongest Antenna Power * ( Sum of Antenna's Powers / Strongest Antenna Power ) ^ ( Average Weighted Combinability Exponent for Vessel )

 basically means the main contributor its the strongest antenna while stacking dozens of antennas don't work very well.

-How far two vessel (or vessel and GS) can be and still communicate depends on both vessels antenna power

Range = SQRT ( Antenna Strength 1 * Antenna Strength 2 )

-Kerbin is covered with Ground Station with very strong Antenna power.

Tracking Station Level (Rating)
1 (2G) 	2 (50G) 	3 (250G) 

considering all that:

A craft a craft can communicate with Kerbin if there is line of Sight and the antenna is strong enough to reach it directly. If not it need at least be able to reach a relay that can redirect the signal toward a Ground Station.

A vessel with a single HG-5(weakest relay) can communicate with a vessel with a single communotron 16 (weakest relay antenna) up to 1581km away. Two of those satellites can talk to each other up to 5000km away. With some trigonometry we can figure out that such satellites in a equatorial  triangular formation just a bit more than [celestial body radius] above the surface of said celestial body will give a pretty good local coverage ('everything but the poles' almost all the time).

At this point there is just some gaps to fill: similar satellite for polar regions (or whatever your blindspot is), satellite with strong antennas for when HG-5 can't talk directly to KSC. 

To be honest, I just consider that much because I like to remove satellites out off fuel to avoid accepting a position OutOfFuelButYouDontKnowSat in a new orbit contract. CommNet Satellites, marked accordingly, are let alone.

 

[The Minmus Derp]

I am setting up an interplanetary relay network in kerbal star systems by @StarCrusher96with Kerbin ground stations, an eve network, a Duna network, a Dres and Vern network, a Jool system network, a Voon system network, a Oran system network, a Naal system network, a Kel/Hal/Naith network, a comets network, and a Hypat network. That last one is going to be HARD