KSP Weekly: Mapping with Magellan

[SQUAD]

Welcome to KSP Weekly! Tomorrow, September 15th, it’ll have been 28 years since the Magellan spacecraft began its primary mission, so it is as good a time as any to talk about this cool Venusian orbiter. Aptly named after the sixteenth-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, known for his exploration, mapping, and circumnavigation of the Earth, the spacecraft’s main goal was designed to make quality radar maps of at least 70 percent of Venus’ surface, providing a clear look at the topography below the planet’s thick, perpetual cloak of clouds. 

Also referred to as the Venus Radar Mapper, the Magellan spacecraft was launched by NASA on May 4 1989 aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, making it the first interplanetary mission to be launched from a shuttle. It was also the first one to use a solid-fuel motor called the Inertial Upper Stage booster to continue its journey as it was released from the shuttle’s cargo bay, and the first spacecraft to test aerobraking as a method for circularizing its orbit. Magellan was the fifth successful NASA mission to Venus, and it ended an eleven-year gap in U.S. interplanetary probe launches.

The spacecraft carried a sophisticated imaging radar, called Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR),  which was used to make the most highly detailed map of Venus ever captured during its four years in orbit around Venus from 1990 to 1994. After concluding its radar mapping, Magellan also made global maps of Venus’s gravity field.

Magellan mapped 98 percent of the planet’s surface with a resolution of 100 meters or better. The radar images showed that most of the surface was covered by volcanic materials, that there were few impact craters (suggesting that the surface is relatively young geologically), and that there was no evidence of plate tectonic activity or water erosion, although there was some evidence of wind erosion. Despite the high surface temperatures (475°C) and high atmospheric pressures (92 atmospheres), the complete lack of water makes erosion an extremely slow process. As a result, surface features can persist for hundreds of millions of years. The Magellan mission also determined the topography of the Venusian surface, measured the Venusian gravity field, and provided suggestive evidence that the planet’s interior differs in major ways from Earth’s interior.

On Oct. 12, 1994, the spacecraft made a dramatic plunge into the thick, hot Venusian atmosphere, and was crushed by the pressure of Venus’s atmosphere. Magellan’s signal was lost at 10:02 Universal Time (3:02 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time) that day. What a glorious end to such an amazing mission, don’t you think?

Although Magellan was the agency’s last dedicated Venus mission, we’re sure that the lessons learned from the spaceship’s aerodynamic dive into the Venusian atmosphere will be applied to future planetary missions… even if conducted by little green creatures.

[Development news start here]

The progress on Update 1.5 is on track, and, naturally, this week wasn’t without its developments. The team is currently working on some cool features regarding one of our favorite Celestial Bodies: Asteroids! As you know, before the Making History Expansion, it was very hard to get an asteroid within the atmosphere of other Celestial Bodies, at least without mods or some sort of cheats. When Asteroids were originally introduced into the game, only space interactions were in mind, but that changed with the expansion as now players can easily spawn asteroids on collision routes with other Celestial Bodies. In light of this, we have been working on ensuring that asteroids behave properly whenever they enter the atmosphere of a Celestial Body, similar to a spacecraft. So far, we have added VFXs as they go through reentry heat and included explosion effects when they actually collide. Check this Gif to see the progress.  

In other news, the endeavor of revamping parts continues! Each week we gather insightful feedback from the community as we show the new look of some of these parts, but we haven’t shown you everything just yet. This week we have some stuff to show off. For instance, there’s more to the revamping task of the MK1 Command Pod that we want you to look at. Let’s start with the new IVA, which has been done over from scratch. As you know the look of this Pod takes inspiration from the Project Mercury Pods, so it made perfect sense to draw inspiration from these command pods to model the new command panel. What do you think?

Click here to see the high-res image 

Additionally, the team also worked on creating a couple of additional texture variants for the MK1 Command Pod. This way you’ll be able to give your rockets the right look: Dark, White or a Gray & White pattern, it is up to you! Also noteworthy is the detail that our artists have added to the Pod’s texture.

Click here to see the high-res image

The Probodobodyne OKTO command modules also were in the artistic agenda this week. The new look of these command modules was based on the ones used in the Mariner Program, and to achieve that our artists made completely new texture maps using diffuse, normal and specular maps. They also retouched the geometry and added a new shader to the module’s tops to make them shine and interact with light, just like they did with the HECS modules. On top of that, with resource optimization in mind, they put both textures into a single map. Moreover, the collision mesh was tweaked to better fit the shape of the probes. Check these gifs to see the new models in motion: OKTO and OKTO 2. Bear in mind that the config files of these parts were not modified in any significant way.

Click here to see the high-res image

[KSP Vault]

This week in the KSP Vault…

Matt Lowne released the 4th episode of his new Green Harvest series! Since the Duna Attacks, we loved Matt’s cinematic storytelling and Green Harvest doesn’t disappoint. Check it out!

Finally, Marcus House made a simulation of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy sending a self-refueling (ISRU) vessel  to the Moons Surface. A double booster vertical landing included! Impressive…

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:

• ASP: The Magellan Spacecraft at Venus. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.astrosociety.org/edu/publications/tnl/18/18.html?PHPSESSID=4aff07778bb9b4b6b5727a1050ec3e91
  
• Hamilton, C. J. (n.d.). Magellan Mission to Venus. Retrieved from http://solarviews.com/eng/magellan.htm
  
• In Depth | Magellan – Solar System Exploration: NASA Science. (2018, January 26). Retrieved from https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/magellan/in-depth/
  
• Logsdon, J. M. (2018, June 11). Magellan. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Magellan
  
• Magellan. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/magellan/
  

[theJesuit]

Amazing Mk1 pods.  Thank you! And thanks for the fresher, contained IVAs.  

I'm ready for a release now.  Thanks.

Peace.

[Caelib]

Nice, how about a new skybox now?

[GearsNSuch]

Very, very nice!

The concept of having different texture switch options for the Mk1 pod is an extremely good idea; it really broadens the field of applications. And yes, I do love the "HATCH MAY OPEN" decal. Classic.

As far as the IVA goes, the buttons and other greebles really add to the immersion. Perhaps a little bit more grit and grime on the dashboard would be in order.

The sides of the OKTO look great, but I'd have to see the top in-game to determine how that looks.

 

Thanks, and keep up the good work!

 

P. S. - I just noticed... Good job with the endcap replacement; the hole-less version is much nicer. Nobody can say you all don't listen to feedback.

Edited September 22, 2018 by GearsNSuch

[linuxgurugamer]

Exploding asteroids! Wheeeeeeee

[SpacedCowboy]

Has the mass been altered on the MK1 or the Octo ?

Love the new "looks" !

[HebaruSan]

7 minutes ago, GearsNSuch said:

The concept of having different texture switch options for the Mk1 pod is an extremely good idea;

The sides of the OKTO look great,

Quoting this just to agree, looks quite nice so far.

Some feedback on the new OKTO end caps, I like how you have the foil coming up over the edge as some players suggested in previous threads. However, those sections look a little flat and cartoony somehow in the rotation animations, as if the markings are drawn on the foil rather than being deformations or wrinkles in it. I'm no modeler, but maybe double check that the normal map is as intended?

[Star-Eagle]

I have never commented on one of your updates before but I thought I should express my sincere thanks for your continued efforts to make this game the best it can be. Life has left me with precious little time to play any games but this is the only one I really bother to make time to play anymore, I wish you all the best in your continued endeavors.

 

[Poodmund]

A good week of previews this week giving an insight into the work done over the past 7 days!

• The new Mk1 IVA is a vast improvement over the current one bringing it up to the standard of the Mk1-3 Capsule in terms of style, level of detail and quality.
• The new OKTO probe cores are looking more promising than the previous HECS probes shown with respect to the new shader when simulating wrapped foil like surfaces. I think this is just down to the implementation of the texture in where you have shown the 'foil' to be pinned down/retained in segments; exactly as per the feedback that was given on the previous HECS prove core. This 'retaining' of the foil gives the surface shape much like the foil is bulging out in these segments giving the, technically, flat surface much more visual interest and stops it looking flat... and therefore actually believable that this is a real life shape. It still could be tightened up in places as HebaruSan has mentioned above (I think the texturing may just have been done with a slightly too softer brush) but overall much better than previously implemented.
• The radiator louvers on the sides of the OKTO probe core are very nice compared to the old part which features very little visual interest. The great thing about these louvers is that they have been modeled into the the actual mesh of the part itself rather than simulating the geometry with a diffuse and normal map. These extra details don't add too much to the tri count but really give the part that extra detail to make the part look interesting.
• The Mk1 pod variants look fine, not too much going on here aside from what you'd kind of expect from a recolour and its always nice to have more texture variants if they are done well, HOWEVER, I am slightly worried about the artifacting and compression that the textures have obviously gone through judging from the preview image. There is a lot of colour compression which has induced a large amount of green and purple artifacting on the sides of the white variants (which is a common issue) but I feel like efforts should be made to try and reduce these compression issues as much as possible. You can see this issue here when zoomed in on the preview:

• I appreciate that this could also be compression induced through the image-preview creation stage or by Imgur during the upload process but I am also aware that it is a common issue when saving textures into the .dds format.
• It is nice to see the Dev team taking on feedback to reintroduce the Warning message on the Mk1 capsule as it was a very long standing detail that the community has grown to love.
• The increased detail into the end caps is a nice touch. Certainly an improvement over the usual, cookie-cutter end cap that has been used across many parts.
• The underside of the Mk1 capsule/heat shield looks a bit simple and I am not sure as to why there is a very bumpy, normal map being used on this area: 

• Presuming it is pseudo-simulating a heat shield, it looks more like heat insulation material found on cryogenic fuel tanks rather than heat resistant tiles or segmented PICA heat shield. I'm not quite sure on the intent of the design here but I would suggest that it could be improved, even if the strength of the normals were just reduced somewhat.

All in all, quite a positive showing this week which I hope gives the community a little bit of positive feeling and excitement seeing the standard of the parts shown to us being of a higher caliber. It is nice to see some direct feedback being taken on board and being incorporated into the newly shown work and I hope this is an upward trend. Looking forward to seeing more from the team in coming weeks.  

Edited September 14, 2018 by Poodmund
Grammar.

[Deddly]

Nice feedback, people! 

I don't have much to say right now, but I am happy to see some work on the asteroids. I was hoping for a massive explosion (possibly mid-air) to give an idea of how much energy is actually being dumped, but I suppose any explosion is better than none

[Delay]

3 minutes ago, Deddly said:

but I suppose any explosion is better than none

Usually I'd agree, but this time i think it's mandatory... cutting it off here to preserve the rhyme

to make the explosions bigger when an asteroid collides with the planet (or with another asteroid?). Otherwise it just looks a bit anticlimactic in my opinion. You're expecting a large explosion and perhaps even a (visible) shockwave, however what you actually get is just not able to satisfy your expectations.

[Johan-c]

Are there any plans to tweak the atmospheric flight model? 

The way aircraft lose energy magnificently quickly by simply diving, is startling if you've ever piloted a real plane. 

[basic.syntax]

Yay for decals - more, please! 

On ‎9‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 9:36 AM, basic.syntax said:

one thing that seems missing on parts are manufacturer logos.  The "personality" of the manufacturer should influence how prominently they display their logo. Some might have a simple text statement on the back, a 'makers mark' without words, others might be full color, etc.

 

[Wallygator]

perhaps for 1.5 you might consider enabling the transfer of science points between docked vessels.

Or did I miss something, and this is already implemented?

[Vexillar]

Loving the new looks here, and agree with the majority of the feedback above.

Particularly happy to see variants: and ones that are more than just paint jobs.  For illogical reasons, when I was small, I was somehow never comfortable with the surface texture of the real-life Mercury capsules, so I'll be happy to use the "smooth" variants here.

Big thanks for bringing back the warning caption .  The new IVA is a big improvement over the old one, too.

[scimas]

That's more like it. Devs / Art people, go and compare these OKTOs to the HECSs for yourself. These look so much better.

Was it a deliberate decision to keep the sides of the OKTOs non-foil shiny? A little more light reflection from those surfaces might be good. Right now the sides look a bit flat. Then again this might be my personal preference.

The Mk1 pod looks great too. The hatch - pod boundary could be a bit more defined on the dark variant.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

I thought I'd add my own little comment, even though it mostly mirrors others.

I really like that there's variants for the mk1. It's pretty clear that the mk1 was inspired by the mercury capsule, but it's also always been the only black part. Having the choice to make the part visuals match just makes a lot of sense.

Also, good work on the IVA. I'm sure all the modders out there who have made IVAs will agree, it's one of the hardest stages in part modelling (including uv unwrapping) and I think you've done a great job by the look of it.

[Tyko]

Congrats @SQUAD really excited to see the quality improvements! Thanks for listening to all the feedback - despite it getting a bit heated at times.

Looking forward to 1.5   

[klgraham1013]

I look forward to 1.5.  My fingers are crossed.

[Lupi]

I like these! It's nice to see variants for the pod, making it useful into the far future on clean white spaceships!

 

And these probe cores look so much better, perhaps even better than the ones we've already seen get redone!

[KraterKreator]

3 hours ago, SQUAD said:

So far, we have added VFXs as they go through reentry heat and included explosion effects when they actually collide. Check this Gif to see the progress.

This is an awesome effect to implement. I hope you are adding the hidden re-entry effects and that small asteroids will explode in the atmosphere.

KSC is no longer safe.

 

3 hours ago, SQUAD said:

As you know the look of this Pod takes inspiration from the Project Mercury Pods, so it made perfect sense to draw inspiration from these command pods to model the new command panel. What do you think?

Is that the KerbNet implemented in IVA? That's great! I'm not sure I can give up ScanSat but this is an awesome addition to the base game.

Great update this week @SQUAD! Do I hear a distant steam whistle?

[panzer1b]

3 hours ago, SQUAD said:

[Development news start here]

The progress on Update 1.5 is on track, and, naturally, this week wasn’t without its developments. The team is currently working on some cool features regarding one of our favorite Celestial Bodies: Asteroids! As you know, before the Making History Expansion, it was very hard to get an asteroid within the atmosphere of other Celestial Bodies, at least without mods or some sort of cheats. When Asteroids were originally introduced into the game, only space interactions were in mind, but that changed with the expansion as now players can easily spawn asteroids on collision routes with other Celestial Bodies. In light of this, we have been working on ensuring that asteroids behave properly whenever they enter the atmosphere of a Celestial Body, similar to a spacecraft. So far, we have added VFXs as they go through reentry heat and included explosion effects when they actually collide. Check this Gif to see the progress.  

In other news, the endeavor of revamping parts continues! Each week we gather insightful feedback from the community as we show the new look of some of these parts, but we haven’t shown you everything just yet. This week we have some stuff to show off. For instance, there’s more to the revamping task of the MK1 Command Pod that we want you to look at. Let’s start with the new IVA, which has been done over from scratch. As you know the look of this Pod takes inspiration from the Project Mercury Pods, so it made perfect sense to draw inspiration from these command pods to model the new command panel. What do you think?

Click here to see the high-res image 

Additionally, the team also worked on creating a couple of additional texture variants for the MK1 Command Pod. This way you’ll be able to give your rockets the right look: Dark, White or a Gray & White pattern, it is up to you! Also noteworthy is the detail that our artists have added to the Pod’s texture.

Click here to see the high-res image

The Probodobodyne OKTO command modules also were in the artistic agenda this week. The new look of these command modules was based on the ones used in the Mariner Program, and to achieve that our artists made completely new texture maps using diffuse, normal and specular maps. They also retouched the geometry and added a new shader to the module’s tops to make them shine and interact with light, just like they did with the HECS modules. On top of that, with resource optimization in mind, they put both textures into a single map. Moreover, the collision mesh was tweaked to better fit the shape of the probes. Check these gifs to see the new models in motion: OKTO and OKTO 2. Bear in mind that the config files of these parts were not modified in any significant way.

Click here to see the high-res image

Well it looks like the devs are finally starting to go in the right direction (not perfect but there isnt a SINGLE part this week that makes me look at it with flat out negativity).

 

Looks like ill actually start implementing the MK-1 pod in my ship designs on a larger scale, since the new ones are really really good.  The IVA is really good, with a good combo of details and simplicity which fits the part.  The textures are good too, and it seems like you guys have finally started focusing on fixing the little things, namely proper edge textures instead of using "magic-seams" in your parts, the single biggest eyesore i know of.  I still see improvement in this regard, but what you made is good enough that id be happy to see that part as it is in the pics in game.  I also like the endcaps, the top is unique to the pod (so no more reusing porkjet's end cap on every single part in KSP), and it has a good combo of simplicty and detailing.  Even though its not quite authentic to reality (doesnt look like heatshielding), i like the texture on the very bottom too since its something that i havent seen on other parts and defenetely breaks the monotomy of every endcap being super similar and beats the flat black of the original while still keeping it a similarish style overall.

 

The octos are also great, with some very nice edges which make sense to have, foil wraps around and ends with some metal covering the foil and no "magic-seams" present.  There seems to be a little bit of artefacting on the octo-2 where the foil and metal meet, but it might be just the view angle or something, hard to tell if thats a bad angle or blurry textures.  I also really like the vents on the octo-1, since they help break the monotony of the part and give it a bit of flavor without eating crazy polygons or taking away from the sort of classic look and feel weve all become used to.  Now if only the HEX core can get the same treatment (i like that they are each a little different in style and layout, but the HEX needs to have properly done edges on the foil to metal seam like the octos have now).

 

Anyways, there are still a few things you guys can do better, but i will say that you have CONSIDERABLY IMPROVED your art style from what ive seen before (and what was released in the previous revamps like the atrocious rocketmax 2.5m tanks, MK1-3 pod, ect).  keep up the good work and PLEASE consider taking a second look at some of the not super great parts you showed us earlier (specifically the MK-1 LFO tanks and HEX-2).  It would really go a long way to making the game both beautiful to look at and it would go a long way to restoring some of your community's faith that KSP is in good hands even if its a different company and most of the devs are new to this particular game.

[Raptor9]

Nice!  Last week I mentioned that I might actually start using the RT-10 and RT-5; this week I'll admit I'll probably start using the Mk1 pod in other uses besides Mercury analogues.  Love the texture-switching and the new spiffy IVA. 

Really like the new probe cores too.  I'm interested to see what you might do with the QBE and Rovemate cores.  My two cents, I wish the Rovemate itself was smaller and more compact, or at the very least, less generic-looking.  As it stands, I've been using the QBE since it's easier to integrate into small remote-control rovers; despite the Rovemate having enhanced scans on the surface.  An example is my Curiosity-inspired Duna rover.  If I were to try to use the Rovemate, it would dwarf the wheels and the sensors, and require the skycrane to be much bigger with more delta-V/TWR, a larger launch vehicle, etc etc.  

Also, could you please change the Rovemate navball orientation so that it looks across the horizon in line with the long axis of the Rovemate's housing, instead of straight up.  Otherwise another control axis like a docking port needs to be added to use the Rovemate as a rover core.

[Daishi]

Loving these new parts! Things are really starting to shine now, massive props to the skills of the art team  

[Terwin]

5 hours ago, Wallygator said:

perhaps for 1.5 you might consider enabling the transfer of science points between docked vessels.

Or did I miss something, and this is already implemented?

Currently any part that can gather science(in-line autopilot pods, the science container, and the lab) will gather science across all docked parts, and any attached experiment or science container can transfer to other science containers across the entire connected vessel.

While crew modules can hold data, they cannot collect or receive transferred data(only manual transfers from an external Kerbal).

Or are you talking about science transfers that are not currently possible without manual intervention by a Kerbal, such as gathering all available data into a Mk1 pod?