KSP Weekly: A Jovian Pioneer

[SQUAD]

Welcome to KSP Weekly everyone. Today marks the 46th anniversary of the launch of Pioneer 10, the very first probe to complete a mission to Jupiter. It was launched in 1972 by an Atlas-Centaur expendable vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and weighing 258 kilograms. Thereafter, Pioneer 10 became the first artificial object to achieve the escape velocity that will allow it to leave the Solar System; only five crafts including Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 & 2, and New Horizons have achieved that. The project was conducted by the NASA Ames Research Center in California, and the space probe was manufactured by TRW Inc.

Pioneer 10 was assembled around a hexagonal bus with a 2.74-meter diameter parabolic dish high-gain antenna, and the spacecraft was spin stabilized around the axis of the antenna. Its electric power was supplied by four radioisotope thermoelectric generators that provided a combined 155 watts at launch. It also carries various scientific instruments, such as a Helium Vector Magnetometer, a Quadrispherical Plasma Analyzer, a Charged Particle Instrument (CPI), a Cosmic Ray Telescope (CRT), a Geiger Tube Telescope (GTT), a Trapped Radiation Detector (TRD), Meteoroid Detectors, an Asteroid/Meteoroid Detector (AMD), a Ultraviolet Photometer, an Imaging Photopolarimeter (IPP), and an Infrared Radiometer.

Between July 15, 1972, and February 15, 1973, it became the first spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt. It began photographing Jupiter on November 6, 1973, at a range of 25,000,000 km, and a total of about 500 images were transmitted.

The closest approach to the planet was on December 4, 1973, at a range of 132,252 km. During the mission, the on-board instruments were used to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter, the solar wind, cosmic rays, and eventually the far reaches of the Solar System and heliosphere, which is is the bubble-like region of space dominated by the Sun, which extends far beyond the orbit of Pluto.

Radio communications were lost with Pioneer 10 on January 23, 2003, because of the loss of electric power for its radio transmitter, with the probe at a distance of 12 billion km (80 AU) from Earth.

Some scientists predict that Pioneer 10 is currently around  114.07 AU from the Earth; and traveling at 12.04 km/s relative to the Sun and traveling outward at about 2.54 AU per year. If left undisturbed, the probe and its sister craft Pioneer 11 will join the two Voyager spacecrafts and the New Horizons spacecraft in leaving the Solar System to wander the interstellar medium. The Pioneer 10 trajectory is expected to take it in the general direction of the star Aldebaran, currently located at a distance of about 68 light years. If Aldebaran had zero relative velocity, it would require more than two million years for the spacecraft to reach it.

At the behest of Carl Sagan, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 carry a 152 by 229 mm gold-anodized aluminum plaque in case either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from another planetary system. The plaques feature the nude figures of a human male and female along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. The plaque is attached to the antenna support struts to provide some shielding from interstellar dust. I wonder if Kerbals will perform a similar mission to explore Jool and the outskirts of the Kerbollean Star System?

[Development news start here]

Another great week full of developments! For starters, last week we released our first patch for KSP Enhanced Edition and we haven’t lost a minute to start comping all the feedback that our beloved players are providing us with. We want once more to reiterate our commitment to continue supporting Enhanced Edition. Click here to read the detailed release notes.

Additionally, we also published a new tutorial for the upcoming Making History Expansion, where we detail the steps needed to share missions with other players. With this guide you’ll be ready to export, share and play missions from day one! Coupled with the last week’s tutorial, where we look into the process of creating missions, you’ll have the necessary tools to become a true Mission Designer on March 13th!

As expected, the developers have been very busy this week, making the final preparations for the Expansion and ongoing an exhaustive bughunt. It is common at this stage of the development process to encounter issues that managed to escape the view of the developers when things were originally implemented. Luckily, the expert eyes of our testers are working to ensure a smooth release. Kudos to all of them!

While the bug fixing is currently the main task at hand, some of the devs finished implementing the mesh switching button for the new vintage space suit. We have basically added a cycle button in the select crew window between the Kerbal icon and name. Clicking this hanger-shaped icon will change the assigned suit, and change the Kerbal icon to show the assigned suit. But an image is worth a thousand words, so check it out yourselves.  

The team also added an “Author” field to the Mission Briefing tab, so that creators are properly credited for their missions.

Additionally, the team finished with the implementation of the intermediate Tutorial, which will teach players to provide missions with scores, create situational events, among other cool stuff! We are also updating some older engine audio. The task is almost done and we are currently testing that everything works (or sounds) as it should.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates!

Happy launchings!

[Click here for high-res images]

*Information Source:  

• (n.d.). Encounter with the Giant. Retrieved from https://history.nasa.gov/SP-349/ch8.htm
• (n.d.). The Pioneer Jupiter Mission. Retrieved from https://history.nasa.gov/SP-349/ch2.htm
• Dunbar, B. (n.d.). Pioneer-10 and Pioneer-11. Retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/missions/archive/pioneer10-11.html

[MOARdV]

I realize it's a tiny screenshot, and my glasses are a bit out of whack, but I could swear that the jacket Jeb is wearing after the wardrobe change looks like an orange version of the jacket Michael Jackson wore in the Thriller video.

[Tyko]

13 minutes ago, MOARdV said:

I realize it's a tiny screenshot, and my glasses are a bit out of whack, but I could swear that the jacket Jeb is wearing after the wardrobe change looks like an orange version of the jacket Michael Jackson wore in the Thriller video.

Jeb does know how to Mun Walk 

[klgraham1013]

1 hour ago, SQUAD said:

But an image is worth a thousand words, so check it out yourselves.

I would, but the image appears to have been made for ants.

[Raven Industries]

I'm no modder, but I'm curious, so I'll ask anyways: will this uniform switching function be something mods can take advantage of? If so, will it be only in the expansion, or will the framework for it be in the base game too?

[Poodmund]

Please... like please... for the sake of all that is UI-holy... please can we not have this released with the hanger button aligned to the left of the Kerbal Name? This throws off the alignment with the Kerbal Role underneath and just looks inherently wrong from a UI standpoint. If the Hanger Button was placed to the far right of the Kerbal Name it would make more sense from a UX view.

I have mocked up the changed below, at the top half the Hanger Button moved to the right and the bottom half with the Hanger Button aligned to the left as you have shown it.

EDIT: Or actually it would be better to rather just align the button directly the the furthest right extent of the Kerbal window:

Edited March 2, 2018 by Poodmund

[klgraham1013]

1 hour ago, SQUAD said:

We have basically added a cycle button...Clicking this hanger-shaped icon will change the assigned suit...

Wouldn't a drop down menu be cleaner and allow for a multitude of suits to be added without having to cycle through all of them?

[Mrcarrot]

Just now, klgraham1013 said:

Wouldn't a drop down menu be cleaner and allow for a multitude of suits to be added without having to cycle through all of them?

I suppose it would be... but that would require creating an entirely new UI element, which is probably not the main concern of the devs.

That said, I agree with what @Poodmund has pointed out; the hanger icon should really be to the right.

[klgraham1013]

5 minutes ago, Poodmund said:

Please... like please... for the sake of all that is UI-holy... please can we not have this released with the hanger button aligned to the left of the Kerbal Name? This throws off the alignment with the Kerbal Role underneath and just looks inherently wrong from a UI standpoint. If the Hanger Button was placed to the right of the Kerbal Name it would make more sense from a UX view.

I have mocked up the changed below, at the top half the Hanger Button moved to the right and the bottom half with the Hanger Button aligned to the left as you have shown it.

Hey.  We've still got gizmo buttons floating in space when they should clearly be grouped with the symmetry and snap-to buttons.  ...but I'm no UI designer.  What do I know.

Edited March 2, 2018 by klgraham1013

[DeltaDizzy]

it just looks wrong when its to the left though. It gave me chills looking at that. ACTUAL CHILLS!

[Sigma88]

4 minutes ago, Poodmund said:

for the sake of all that is UI-holy...

what about top or bottom right instead?

 

[stibbons]

6 minutes ago, Poodmund said:

If the Hanger Button was placed to the right of the Kerbal Name it would make more sense from a UX view.

Disagree. Left-aligned means it's always in the same place. Right aligned means more work for the user trying to find the button.

Argue for aesthetics all you like, but making it harder for the user to click a button is not great UX.

[klgraham1013]

2 minutes ago, Mrcarrot said:

I suppose it would be... but that would require creating an entirely new UI element, which is probably not the main concern of the devs.

Good UI is one of the more obvious signs of professional software development.  At least, in my humble opinion.

1 minute ago, stibbons said:

Disagree. Left-aligned means it's always in the same place. Right aligned means more work for the user trying to find the button.

Argue for aesthetics all you like, but making it harder for the user to click a button is not great UX.

Perhaps the layout needs redone entirely.  For instance, the class name and star rating could be next to each other.

[Poodmund]

1 minute ago, stibbons said:

Disagree. Left-aligned means it's always in the same place. Right aligned means more work for the user trying to find the button.

Argue for aesthetics all you like, but making it harder for the user to click a button is not great UX.

See my EDIT  

[klgraham1013]

Just now, Poodmund said:

See my EDIT  

Looks good.  *thumbs up*

[Stone Blue]

How about the hanger icon to right of the class name?

Edited March 2, 2018 by Stone Blue

[stibbons]

1 minute ago, Poodmund said:

See my EDIT  

Ninja'd.

That said, I personally like the original layout just fine. For those who wrongly think they have OCD, sure, align the name and class. But it's a minor thing.

[Poodmund]

Just now, stibbons said:

For those who wrongly think they have OCD, sure, align the name and class.

Not OCD, just Obsessive Compulsive Order.

[Sigma88]

Just now, stibbons said:

Ninja'd.

That said, I personally like the original layout just fine. For those who wrongly think they have OCD, sure, align the name and class. But it's a minor thing.

not OCD, but if they really want to keep it left I'd at least move the trait to match the name

[DeltaDizzy]

https://www.strawpoll.me/15187461

lets settle this once and for all

Edited March 3, 2018 by DeltaDizzy

[Galileo]

Just now, Sigma88 said:

not OCD, but if they really want to keep it left I'd at least move the trait to match the name

It’s not necessarily an OCD thing, that’s just poor design. They have so much room to work with, why cram everything to the left? It’s easier on the eye to find it in the way poodmund is showing. They eye naturally moves across images, and doesn’t like to look for things. In UI design, it’s imperative that the designer takes that into account, though I’m not sure they have an actual UI/UX guy on the staff, so I can give them the benefit of the doubt.

[Poodmund]

EULA/TOS discussion aside, I am sure that a mod-dev could release a simple plugin that could relocate the button post 1.4 release if the current layout was kept through to release, if they so desired to.

Edited March 2, 2018 by Poodmund

[JPLRepo]

46 minutes ago, Raven Industries said:

I'm no modder, but I'm curious, so I'll ask anyways: will this uniform switching function be something mods can take advantage of? If so, will it be only in the expansion, or will the framework for it be in the base game too?

Suit/Uniform switching requires the DLC. That has been announced in previous KSPW's.

[DeltaDizzy]

1 minute ago, JPLRepo said:

Suit/Uniform switching requires the DLC. That has been announced in previous KSPW's.

D: why

[Raven Industries]

3 minutes ago, JPLRepo said:

Suit/Uniform switching requires the DLC. That has been announced in previous KSPW's.

Ah, ok. Thanks for the response!