Jump to content

KSP Weekly: The Orbiters!


SQUAD

Recommended Posts

tumblr_inline_pdm7dlophx1rr2wit_540.png

Welcome to KSP Weekly! On August 10, 1966, the Lunar Orbiter 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 13 aboard an Atlas SLV-3 Agena-D to become the first American spacecraft to orbit the moon and the first probe to map the Moon.  As part of NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Program, it was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. It was also equipped to collect selenodetic, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data.

The spacecraft acquired photographic data from August 18 to 29, 1966, and readout occurred through September 14, 1966. A total of 42 high-resolution and 187 medium-resolution frames were taken and transmitted to Earth covering over 5 million square kilometers of the Moon’s surface, accomplishing about 75% of the intended mission, although a number of the early high-resolution photos showed severe smearing. It also took the first two pictures of the Earth ever from the distance of the Moon. Accurate data was acquired from all other experiments throughout the mission. Below you can see the first image of Earth taken from the Moon by the Lunar Orbiter 1 probe.

tumblr_inline_pdm7odUXF31rr2wit_540.jpg

The spacecraft was tracked until it impacted the lunar surface on command at 7 degrees north latitude, 161 degrees east longitude (selenographic coordinates) on the Moon’s far side on October 29, 1966, on its 577th orbit. The early end of the nominal one-year mission was due to the small amount of remaining attitude control gas and other deteriorating conditions and was planned to avoid transmission interference with Lunar Orbiter 2.

The following four missions of the lunar orbiter program were also successful, and collectively they mapped 99 percent of the surface of the Moon from photographs taken with a resolution of 60 meters or better. The first three missions were dedicated to imaging 20 potential manned lunar landing sites, selected based on Earth-based observations. These were flown at low-inclination orbits.   

[Development news start here]

We continue to be hard at work on Kerbal Space Program 1.5. As we mentioned last week, one key aspect in this update is going to be the standardization, optimization, and make-over of various graphical assets within the game. As part of this task we looked back at one particular item that looked a bit outdated after the addition of the vintage space suits in the Making History Expansion; we are talking of course of the EVA Space Suits, which are now being given a well-deserved overhaul. We knew that such an iconic element of the game needed to stay true to its identity, so we are keeping its style, while also giving it a sleeker look. In the image below, you can see a comparison between the old and new EVA suits.

tumblr_inline_pdm7jxdd3k1rr2wit_540.png

Click here for the high res image.

As you can see, not only the suit itself looks better, but the jet pack received a refurbishment. You may also notice that there are two variations on the new EVA look, and here is where you come in… in good old fashion KSP tradition, we will let you choose which variation will be the definite one, so enter this poll to vote for your favorite one. The poll will remain open for a full week and we’ll make the results public in the next KSP Weekly, so stay tuned, and most importantly, help us decide! Here are a couple of GIFs to give you a better look at the suits: Red & White EVA Suit and the Red, Blue & White EVA Suit.

Bug fixing was also in our agenda this week and as such, the team looked at a bug that caused the ambient sounds in the editor to disappear when a user switched between the VAB and the SPH during a new sandbox game. This was particularly noticeable if the music was switched off.

[KSP Vault]

The KSP community never ceases to surprise us! This week we encountered some really cool stuff. First off, we Matt Lowne finally built the actual Hotel for its Minmus Hotel and Casino. Watch him build this gigantic structure and launch it to Minmus in one shot. Click here and enjoy!

tumblr_inline_pdm7keSo861rr2wit_540.png

The Mission of the Week, the Wrecking Crew, entertained our inner problem child by letting us wreak havoc in the KSC as a self propelled wrecking ball with the sole purpose of destroying everything in our path. Check it out here!

tumblr_inline_pdm7l492Gx1rr2wit_540.png

We also want to highlight the Universal Storage Mod! This modular parts mod allows you to build some of the best looking custom service modules out there, while also being highly compatible with the most popular life support mods. There is a lot to like within this mod, so check it out and try it yourself!

tumblr_inline_pdm7lyXEwC1rr2wit_540.png

Have you seen cool KSP-related content that you consider worth highlighting? Share it with us and help us give content creators more exposure. :)

Remember that you can also share and download missions on Curse, KerbalX, the KSP Forum and the KSP Steam Workshop.

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!  




*Information Source:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ooohh, cool new suits!

Personally, I think the helmet should be white (preferably with the same red stripes as an homage to the Apollo suits), but the overall concept looks great! The only other thing I might add is another flag on the front of the suit, but I'm really liking the new designs. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the color pattern on the original helmet better (white + red accents, as opposed to gray + white accents), but overall the suit and backpack seem much improved. The white+red+blue suit has my vote :)

EDIT:

1 minute ago, Dman979 said:

Ooohh, cool new suits!

Personally, I think the helmet should be white (preferably with the same red stripes as an homage to the Apollo suits), but the overall concept looks great! The only other thing I might add is another flag on the front of the suit, but I'm really liking the new designs. :)

Something that might be nice is having the red-accent suit replace the Jeb+otherimportantkerb suit, since the red ribbons were only worn by the mission commander (so they could easily be idenified from the non-ribboned LMP in photos)

Edited by CobaltWolf
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would also tend to agree with the above posts regarding the helmet as the white helmet is kind of iconic throughout the Apollo era and in KSP.

Also, the noise texture on the Helmet normal map seems kind of weird. Wouldn't the helmet be of a smooth, polished material?

Nonetheless, the suit textures seem very nice and show a good improvement in fidelity and character. :D 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Suit looks nice. Helmet? not so much. Needs a more clean look, dont like that noise.

 

Im on team white+red+blue, but please add some color to the helmets once again. Maybe a bit more subtle than before, some stripes or anything, but not this bland like it is right now.

 

Peace

TK

Edited by Tiankay
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, CobaltWolf said:

I like the color pattern on the original helmet better (white + red accents, as opposed to gray + white accents), but overall the suit and backpack seem much improved. The white+red+blue suit has my vote :)

EDIT:

Something that might be nice is having the red-accent suit replace the Jeb+otherimportantkerb suit, since the red ribbons were only worn by the mission commander (so they could easily be idenified from the non-ribboned LMP in photos)

What about keeping the Core Four in the original suits, and the random Kerbals get the updated design?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The new suit looks nice! I do think that the helmet needs some more work though, as it looks kinda...sooty. Would it be possible to add stock support for additional suit textures? I think the same would be good for the new launch sites, as we would no longer have to depend on mods like KerbalKonstructs (sorry, @Ger_space!).

Edited by hieywiey
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Dman979 said:

What about keeping the Core Four in the original suits, and the random Kerbals get the updated design?

I personally like the cleaner design of the newer suits, simply because there is less strange distortion than the old suit. With all that said, I'm curious what will happen for the orange suits.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh man, a suit revamp! A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

I love the new suits and honestly can't decide between the two. Could we perhaps see the new patterns on the orange veteran suits, if you're keeping those?

I also totally agree with what people have already said in regards to the helmet - I feel like the white-with-red helmets are far too iconic to do away with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@SQUAD re the history portion of this weekly, there was actually a very interesting article recently on the images returned from Lunar Orbiter. The images themselves were much higher quality, but until recently we only had access to significantly degraded images made available to the public.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Orbiter_Image_Recovery_Project

https://boingboing.net/2018/06/16/ampex-fr-900-drives.html

earthise.old_.new_.hi_.jpg?w=1000&ssl=1

Edited by CobaltWolf
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Red-White suit gets my vote, however, as many people here have already discussed; what's going to happen to the red stripes? Will they still be available for the core 4? I feel as though this will become a very hot topic in the coming weeks, as it's far too sacrilegious to remove such an iconic part of the game.

With that being said, I'm left to wonder if the gauges on the new backpack will actually display your remaining EVA propellant. While this is pretty much useless This could actually be used during a "No-HUD" playthrough, if someone so chooses. Besides, it's the little things that are nice.

Edited by Noname115
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Cydonian Monk said:

... which requires a signed-in Google account in order to vote. Eh, whatever. Both _suit textures_ look great to me so my vote wouldn't matter anyway. The grey helmet looks off though, as others have already stated above. 

My sentiments are 100% aligned with this post. No vote because google and both textures are good with the exception of the helmet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If nothing else those gifs are fantastic. If they could just be made into a seamless loop they would be perfect.

Also, I agree about the dirty helmets. But what I would really like to see is color on those accents and to make it really great, the ability to configure that color based on class. So the helmet color would immediately identify which class each Kerbal is.

Edited by DMagic
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Vanamonde said:

On the poll, why can't I vote to have all the suits in the game? You've already gone to the trouble to make them, so why not give players an in-game choice? More options are always better. 

Not to mention the fact that they implemented a suit changing system in the expansion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love the new suits! I agree with others above that I like a white helmet with colored highlights over the greyish helmet proposed. If there's any part of the equipment that a kerbalnaut would keep clean it would be their helmet. Doesn't make sense to make it look weathered.

Edited by Tyko
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well this was a welcome surprise over all.

I went with the r/w/b suit but to echo what the others said I'm not a fan of the helmet both in terms of color/shade and that noise map if it's gonna keep the same iconic shape them it should have something closer to the iconic color scheme. Also can we get a pallet swap of the fabric in orange for the original 4? ;)

Edited by passinglurker
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As many others have mentioned, I like the original white and red helmet. The gray one looks too dingy.

As for the actual suit I feel as if all the webbing trim is a bit too defined. I would keep it to just the red and white though. no point to throw in blue too.

New jetpack is looking nice though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...