Eclipse causing batteries to run out on mun orbit !!

[gowthamn]

I am building a 3 satellite communication network around mun at 2000 km. Its solar powered with some batteries. But one day kerbin blocked the sunlight reaching mun (eclipse) !!. Now my satellite network has no power. Any tactic to avoid this situation? Is nuclear power the only way? It will take days for kerbin to completely move out of the way.

[Delay]

If you have spare fuel left, I'd add fuel cells in addition to solar panels (if you already have fuel cells). Otherwise, use bigger or more batteries.

I don't know what your satellites look like, but two flat solar panels and two small batteries always did it for me.

[Tex_NL]

Munar eclipses are EXTREMELY common. They happen about once every 6 Kerbin days. And they NEVER last very long.

In the stock game an 'unfocused' relay, that had power last time you controlled, does NOT run out of power. No matter how many transmissions go through it.

Edited February 11, 2017 by Tex_NL

[gowthamn]

50 minutes ago, Tex_NL said:

Munar eclipses are EXTREMELY common. They happen about once every 6 Kerbin days. And they NEVER last very long.

In the stock game an 'unfocused' relay, that had power last time you controlled, does NOT run out of power. No matter how many transmissions go through it.

For how many kerbin days will mun not receive any sunlight?

[Tex_NL]

42 minutes ago, gowthamn said:

For how many kerbin days will mun not receive any sunlight?

About an hour from start to finish.
What would you expect? As I already said Mun orbits Kerbin in roughly 6 Kerbal days. For an eclipse to take longer than an hour Mun would need to orbit MUCH slower or Kerbin needs to be  A LOT bigger.

Either you are doing something VERY weird or your game is modded in some obscure way. In the stock game what you're saying does not happen.

[George van Doorn]

1 hour ago, Tex_NL said:

Munar eclipses are EXTREMELY common. They happen about once every 6 Kerbin days. And they NEVER last very long.

In the stock game an 'unfocused' relay, that had power last time you controlled, does NOT run out of power. No matter how many transmissions go through it.

@gowthamn, what the man is saying above is, after you are done maneuvering the satellite, don't timewarp while still having control of it, or this might happen. Instead, if you wanna timewarp somewhere, just timewarp at the tracking station. Timewarping while in control of a vehicle and forgetting to orient the panels towards the sun (if you only got the basic ones) or just having eclipses, the usual night/day cycle, will leave without electricity for a while.

[Galileo]

Eclipses don't last days in ksp... they last about 1/6th of a day. I think you are worried for nothing

Edited February 11, 2017 by Galileo

[Tex_NL]

3 minutes ago, Galileo said:

Eclipses don't last for days..... I watched on last night in real life and it was over in about 30 min... 

Then it was probably a cloud that passed in front of the moon. Real life lunar eclipses take roughly 4 to 5 hours.

[Galileo]

The penubral lunar eclipse started at 643pm and I watched it until roughly 720pm while sitting at a memorial service for an old WWII vet. I didn't stay outside longer than that but when I left it looked about done. When I walked out to my car about 20 min later it was a normal moon again. The only reason I new it was happening was because I heard it on the radio

Edited February 11, 2017 by Galileo

[Tex_NL]

10 minutes ago, Galileo said:

The penubral lunar eclipse started at 643pm and I watched it until roughly 720pm while sitting at a memorial service for an old WWII vet. I didn't stay outside longer than that but when I left it looked about done. When I walked out to my car about 20 min later it was a normal moon again. The only reason I new it was happening was because I heard it on the radio

Then you only saw a fraction of it. Yesterdays eclipse lasted from 22:34:14 to 02:53:25 (https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2017-february-11) A total of close to 4 hours 20 minutes.

[Galileo]

1 minute ago, Tex_NL said:

Then you only saw a fraction of it. Yesterdays eclipse lasted from 22:34:14 to 02:53:25 (https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2017-february-11) A total of close to 4 hours 20 minutes.

Perhaps I did. Thanks for the info. And well, looks like it lasts 1/6th of an earth day too

[Snark]

@gowthamn:  Other than the suggestions already made, another option to reduce eclipse issues is to put your comms network not equatorial.  Doesn't necessarily mean they have to be in polar orbits; just inclining the orbits by 20 or 30 degrees will reduce eclipses quite a bit, given that you're orbiting 2000 km up.

If you're putting them in perfectly equatorial orbits, then they're guaranteed to be eclipsed by the Mun on every orbit, and by Kerbin on every Mun orbit.

Just an option among many, FWIW.  The simplest option is to just "don't timewarp through an eclipse", and/or "put enough battery power so they can last through an eclipse" (it doesn't take much).

[gowthamn]

Thanks all., I used to time wrap at high speed and hence the battery just went to 0 in few seconds.