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Planets: Gameplay: The planets and stars of Alpha Centauri are all sized to their real life counterparts. Only three of the bodies (Kelvin, Von Braun, and Armstrong) are known to exist in reality, a great deal of artistic license has been used with the others. The entire system is stable in N-body simulations upwards of 1500 Earth years. In the interest of my sanity in writing the configs I did not call the planets Ab, Ac. I have named them after popular explorers, scientists and physicists that led to the exploration of the stars. As the Pale Red Dot and ESA have released their preliminary findings I have modeled Von Braun and Armstrong to conform to the findings. New in version 0.8: CLOUDS! Extract the boulderCo folder into your Gamedata folder and download Environmental Visual Enhancements from here to use the clouds. To read about the planets and their creation check out this discussion thread FAQS: Where's Kerbin? Gone. This mod is much like RSS in that it replaces the stock system with one a lot closer to reality. Do I need Realism Overhaul? Short Answer: Yes. Long Answer: This mod will function without it, but for the sake of your sanity you will want a mod to adjust fuels and engines to a realistic scale as stock engines are severely under powered in real scale. See the suggested mods section for more info on those. Will updating this mod break my saves? More than likely, yes. It is always best to stick with one version of a mod instead of updating it in between game sessions. Download: SpaceDock Required Mods: Kopernicus Suggested Mods: Realism Overhaul or SMURFF SCANsat Distant Object Enhancement Mechjeb Kerbal Engineer Realistic Progression - Can be used, but Contract Configurator must be removed Environmental Visual Enhancements -Only download plugin- no config files Incompatible Mods: Kopernicus Planet packs - Any other planet mods will not work with this, it will probably disable both mods Contract Configurator - Contracts look for "Sun" by default, causing Nullrefexeption errors if installed. Scatterer - Uses the body named "Sun" to create shadows and atmospheres, I'm attempting a work around Known Issues: None Change Log: 0.8 -Fix for atmospheres -4k textures for major bodies -PQS optimized -EVE Clouds 0.5.5 -Minor fix for Hawkings Normal Map -Solar Power fixed -Alternate Start on the Hawking Asteroid added 0.5.0 First Alpha Release -Reviewed and updated planets meshes and textures -added "fake" body to help simulate Proxima Centauri better -complete change of Proxima Centauri's planets due to findings from Pale Red Dot -reduced brightness of Alpha B and Proxima to reflect reality -added coronas to Alpha B and Proxima -PQS levels reduced and polished -updated to current KSP and Kopernicus version 0.3.2 -Changed SOI boundaries for the stars -Fixed filenames 0.3.1 -Removed Alvarez (coming soon) 0.3 - Final Pre-Alpha -Updated filenames to allow easier install -Created proper barycenter -corrected a serious flaw in calculated mass -Ground scatter added to several bodies -Better biomes for Elcano and Hawking -Added AVC 0.2 - Second Pre-Alpha Release -Major PQS Material editing, planets have nice ground textures now -Fixed issue with spheres of influence being less than 0 -Made Hawking's texture more realistic (brown) -Atmospheres are now the correct color -Added atmospheres to Newton and Copernicus -Asteroids will now spawn throughout the system -Stars textures are now correct(ish) -Optimized On Demand loading (keeps memory usage WAY down) -ALL STARS NOW VISIBLE AT ONCE THANKS TO KOPERNICUS UPDATE :) 0.1 -Public Pre-Alpha License: This License Dated 27 of July, 2016 All folders, subfolders, images and codes contained in this folder are the intellectual property of Matt Epperson/HikoriYami/Mepperson. All rights reserved. Kopernicus is used with permission from its creator (Thomas P.) It is used under permission from his license. This mod includes version checking using [URL=http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/79745]MiniAVC[/URL]. If you opt-in, it will use the internet to check whether there is a new version available. Data is only read from the internet and no personal information is sent. For a more comprehensive version checking experience, please download the [URL=http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/79745]KSP-AVC Plugin[/URL].

http://www.space.com/34835-alpha-centauri-new-star-names.html I dunno about you guys, but I like the old name better than "Rigel Kentaurus".

Centauri Dreams has been a pet project of mine for a little over a year now. I'm proud to share it with the community, and thought that I would offer a write up about the Star System as well as the science behind the creation of it. As I am sure you have all heard, Pale Red Dot found a planet around Proxima Centauri this summer. While this was not the initial reason I started developing my theories into a KSP mod, it did help to support some of my ideas with facts. I will add more to this eventually, including details of how the planets where textured and modeled. Please let me know if there are any questions or suggestions having to do with my math or the planets themselves. Please take a look, and if you would like to try out the mod it can be found here Elcano: Stats: Day Length 21.15 hours Gravity At Sea Level 0.788 Atmosphere: Yes Oxygen Yes Atmosphere at ground Level 1.26 Atm Orbital Characteristics: Orbital Parent Alpha Centauri A Semi Major Axis 135 Mkm Inclination 19.14 Originally, Elcano was going to be Earth 2, but I decided that I would be stretching the reality of it a bit thin. In all Likelihood a planet orbiting this close to Alpha A would be Hot Mars, and that is what I have modeled it after, albeit with a thicker atmosphere and lakes of silicate bearing water. To give it something interesting, I decided that it had a thick ozone layer that would allow for operation of modified air-breathing engines. It also would lend some believably to why humans would choose to land on a barren desert. The high levels of ozone3 could lead a species to believe that there was oxygen (well, there is) on this planet, and therefor life. This theory would be supported by the large lakes of water on the surface of Elcano and the strong magnetic field protecting the atmosphere from the intense stellar winds. It is possible that at one point Elcano supported life, or that it one day might, but when we arrived it was dead. Hawking: Stats: Day Length 30 hours Gravity At Sea Level 0.0212 Atmosphere: No Oxygen - Atmosphere at Sea Level - Orbital Characteristics: Orbital Parent Elcano Semi Major Axis 33,000 km Inclination 18.15 Newton: Stats: Day Length 23.9 hours Gravity At Sea Level 0.512 Atmosphere: Yes Oxygen No Atmosphere at Sea Level 1 Orbital Characteristics: Orbital Parent Alpha Centauri A Semi Major Axis 207 Mkm Inclination 18.34 Gas giants are weird. The term "sea level" does not mean area where there is sea, or area where there would be sea if the was sea as I thought when I started this project. Sea level refers to the level at which there is 1 Earth atmosphere present. The misunderstanding of this led to some hilarious miscalculations in mass and atmosphere density in my first version of this. So the gravity of Newton is way stronger than the stats lead you to believe but, that's the easiest way to state the data. The rings around Newton are actually calculated to the Roche limit and the outer atmosphere, which makes them believably tiny asteroids that orbit around Newton. Inertia: Stats: Day Length 23.9 hours Gravity At Sea Level 0.23 Atmosphere: Yes Oxygen No Atmosphere at Sea Level 0.087 Orbital Characteristics: Orbital Parent Newton Semi Major Axis 170 km Inclination 18.14 Inertia is the first Newtonian moon, it's kind like Mars. I wanted a moon that shows the effects of tidal locking over a large period of time. Inertia may have had a thick atmosphere eons ago, but due to its close proximity to Newton it has been slowly siphoned off. This has lead to a high level of tidal heating, tectonic activity, and the formation of large volcanoes and mountains. Magnitude: Stats: Day Length 23.9 hours Gravity At Sea Level 0.359 Atmosphere: Yes Oxygen No Atmosphere at Sea Level 0.514 Orbital Characteristics: Orbital Parent Newton Semi Major Axis 295 km Inclination 18.54 Magnitude is the polar opposite of Inertia, having large oceans and water as well as a thick atmosphere. This is because of its distance from Newton. The extra one hundred kilometers allows for this moon to keep its atmosphere and possibly even collect Inertia and Newton's atmospheres. Acceleration: Stats: Day Length 38 hours Gravity At Sea Level 0.0512 Atmosphere: No Oxygen Atmosphere at Sea Level Orbital Characteristics: Orbital Parent Newton Semi Major Axis 465 km Inclination 27.14 Kelvin: Stats: Day Length 168 Hours Gravity At Sea Level 1.34 Atmosphere: No Oxygen Atmosphere at Sea Level Orbital Characteristics: Orbital Parent Alpha Centauri B Semi Major Axis 7.7 Mkm Inclination 18.19 Kelvin is rumored by several studies to actually exist in this general area of an orbit and at roughly this mass. Due to its extreme proximity to Alpha Centauri B, it would be tidally locked, leaving one side in permanent darkness and cold while the other burns. It was VERY hard to correctly model this in game. It basically is half Moho half Eeloo, but getting it to rotate and keep the correct side away from the star was quite difficult. I have yet to actually land on this one legit, as the high orbital velocity of Kelvin combined with its mass requires something like 9km/s of delta V to land. Von Braun/Proxima b Stats: Day Length 175 Hours Gravity At Sea Level 1.218 Atmosphere: Yes Oxygen Yes Atmosphere at Sea Level 1.26 Orbital Characteristics: Orbital Parent Proxima Centauri Semi Major Axis 7.2 Mkm Inclination 18.15 Everybody's favorite planet: Proxima b. Modeled in the most optimistic way, it has a 3-2 orbit rotation which allows it to keep its atmosphere. Who knows; perhaps it has life? We'd better send a probe to check it out.

So, I've been playing a bit of the old 4X game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri a lot lately (by the way, if you don't have it they sell it on Steam, and GOG.com has regular sales of it) and felt like discussing it with other Kerbalites... Hopefully it's within the subforum rules to discuss this old game here? Anyways, Alpha Centauri was a game and a work of science fiction far ahead of its time in many ways. It powerfully envisioned the future in such a compelling way I still find myself quoting it from time to time (and I don't usually quote games). Here is one of my favorite quotes from the game, for instance: "Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary, but competition for limited resources remains a constant. Need as well as greed have followed us to the stars, and the rewards of wealth still await those wise enough to recognize this deep thrumming of our common pulse." - CEO Nwabudike Morgan, "The Ethics of Greed" - There are many other interesting and thought-provoking quotes in this game on everything from how to fight a war, to the nature of liberty. For instance: "Beware of he who seeks to deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master." - Commissioner Pravin Lal, "U.N. Declaration of Rights" - I'lI have to post audio clips of the in-game readings of these quotes some time, because Alpha Centauri's voice acting is simply superb. Anyways, for now that should be enough to bring back a few memories and stimulate some discussion. Go forth and converse! Regards, Northstar