MetricKerbalist

Hi KSP colleagues, I have these two questions, please: What is the minimum altitude necessary to enter orbit around Earth? What is the maximum altitude possible to remain in orbit around Earth? Thank you. Stanley

Hi KSP colleagues, I thank all of you for your instructive answers. Stanley

Hi KSP colleagues, All other things being equal, how many fins should a rocket have -- two, three, four, or how many? Thank you for your consideration. Stanley

Hi @Klapaucius, Thank you for this information. Stanley

Thank you so much, @Zhetaan. I will go through your post line by line. Hi @Zhetaan, Nice algebra work. That helped me a lot. One thing I didn't know was whether the Universal Gravitational Constant applied to Kerbol -- but why shouldn't it after all. Thanks again. Stanley

Thank you, @GoSlash27. Very helpful.

Hi @Zhetaan, Wow! Let me look at this fascinating site in detail. Thank you. Stanley

Hi KSP colleagues, Perhaps I should be able to figure this out, but I cannot. I would please like to determine the orbital period for a spacecraft orbiting a celestial body given a certain altitude. For example, if I were orbiting Mun at 100 km given a certain eccentricity, how long would that orbit take? From the formula used to determine that, I suppose it would be quite straightforward to determine the orbital period if the orbit were circular instead of elliptical. I also suppose I could then go backwards and find out the altitude needed to achieve an orbital period of, say, three hours. I went to Wikipedia under "orbital period," but I don't know how to translate the information for the Kerbol system. Here is the link for the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_period Thank you for your consideration. Stanley

Hi @Rhomphaia, Excellent information! Thank you so much. Stanley

Hi @AlpacaMallor anyone else, OK. I just loaded a Probodobodyne OKTO2 inside of an Orbital Mammoth MK5, which I downloaded a few days ago from KerbalX.com. I guess I installed the OKTO2 correctly -- right below the command module, but inside the rocket body. I have now lifted off from the Kerbin Space Center, and I am in orbit around Kerbin. I have a good, strong signal to the Communications Network. At this point, therefore, I should be able to use KerbNet, right? I would appreciate it very much if some knowledgeable KSP colleague could please tell me what I should do to use KerbNet. Thank you for your consideration. Stanley

Hi @AlpacaMall. Thank you for the answer. Stanley

Hi KSP colleagues, I would please like to follow up with information in the post above by @OrdinaryKerman. That post mentions other Kerbin-based tracking stations like Baikerbanur, Crater Rim, North Station One, Mesa South, and Nye Island. I would like to see the location of those places on Kerbin. I am sure that you could fly over them in a rover or some kind of aircraft. Just to get the lay of the land, however, is there some way to view at least their location -- and perhaps zoom in closer -- by some mechanism like Google Earth. What I am asking, I guess, is this: Does the stock KSP game have a built-in feature that offers the functionality of Google Earth? Thank you. Stanley

Thank you, @Blaarkies. I see it.

Hi @OrdinaryKerman, I am trying to find the information about the station to which I am connected. First, when you say the Map View's info tab, that means the letter 'I' that I see on the right side of the Map View, is that correct? So I clicked that, and here is the information that I see: Spacecraft's name Its classification with some additional information Sphere of influence under which I am flying Situation Flight time Velocity Altitude Craft stats But I don't see anything pertaining to the station to which I am connected. Could you please be so kind as to explain what I am doing wrong. Thank you for your consideration. Stanley

Thanks again, @OrdinaryKerman.

Thank you, @OrdinaryKerman. That explains it nicely. However, I need to ask, what does "DSN" mean? I cannot find that in the KSP wiki. It must be something like Direct Satellite [then what]?

Hi KSP colleagues, I have three spacecraft in a Munar orbit. I am in the Tracking Station, and at this moment, all three satellites can communicate with Kerbin. When I cycle through the CommNet Visualization options, I see the following: None (obvious meaning) First Hop (one line) Path (the same one line, as near as I can tell) Vessel Links (and here I see several lines going from Kerbin to any particular spacecraft -- so I guess that each one of those lines on Kerbin indicates a tracking post to a craft) Network (where I see several lines going to all craft) If I may, could someone kindly answer these two questions: What does First Hop mean, and how does it differ from Path? I looked at the KSP wiki, but I cannot find the answer to my questions. Thank you for your consideration. Stanley

Hi @The Azizand anyone else, Thank you. I did what you said, and that worked beautifully. Stanley

Thank you, @The Aziz. I will work on what you say.

Hi KSP colleagues, Please look at the screenshot below, if you would be so kind: You can see the icons for three spacecraft along three different Munar orbits. All three orbits have more or less the same characteristics -- they are fairly circular with very small inclination with respect to each other as they go around Mun. That's good. The problem is that I would like the three craft to be equally spaced around Mun -- in other words, each one spaced about 120 ° apart from the other. The two spacecraft on the bottom of the picture more or less meet that criterion. However, the third one -- the one on the right side at about position 80 ° -- does not. It should be at 0 ° (that is, right on top). Please, could someone tell me how to accomplish that without changing the shape or the inclination of its orbit. All I want to accomplish is change the location of the spacecraft on the very same orbit. Thank you for your consideration. Stanley

Thank you, @K^2. This is impressively involved, but I'll see if I can work my way through it.

Thank you again, @cubinator. Very helpful.

Thank you, @RCgothic. Thank you, @Rhomphaia.

Hi @cubinator, Thank you so very much! That picture was so helpful, you have no idea. If you don't mind, I am going to press my luck and hope that I don't overtax your good will. Would you kindly produce one more picture, this time of a rocket's orbital trajectory as it lifts off from somewhere well south of the equator -- let's say in South America, or Cape Town, or Australia. (I assume that it will head towards the northeast.) Incidentally, the following paragraph and its representation on your picture was additionally helpful Thank you for your consideration. Stanley

Hi @K^2 or anyone else, Wow! I am getting overwhelmed. I didn't realize how much I didn't know. May I please ask you this? Let's say that a rocket were lifting off from Kennedy Space Center, which is at roughly 28 degrees North latitude. Could you kindly show on a map or on Google Earth or on something what one complete orbit around Earth would look like? Thank you for your consideration. Stanley