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Retrograde and Odd Rotation Planets Discussion


GoldForest

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What's the likelihood of this happening in KSP 2? 

In one of the other threads I mentioned that Rask and Rusk might be quasi-satellite orbiting neighbors. In order to keep them facing each other, they would have to be tidally locked, which means that one of them would spin retrograde. 

This got me thinking, would we be able to have Retrograde Planets? And if so, would we want maybe one or two of the original planets to become retrograde? 

Another thought occurred to me that would we want maybe a Uranus analog, a planet on it's side. What about a planet that spins in reverse compared to Kerbin? 

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Axial tilt has been confirmed. A Uranus analogue would be cool.

I would not want any of the original planets to change that much. As to retrograde planets in other systems... I dunno, it sounds like a bit of a stretch. It'd have to be a captured interstellar object that's small enough that its orbit could be regularised through an encounter with some other planet in the system, and while I don't know enough about orbital mechanics to have a really informed opinion, it seems somewhat implausible to me that one could be captured into a stable retrograde orbit. Wouldn't it encounter something sooner or later and get re-ejected into interstellar space (if it doesn't collide)?

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2 hours ago, GoldForest said:

In order to keep them facing each other, they would have to be tidally locked, which means that one of them would spin retrograde. 

No, they both would need to spin the same way they rotate. Either both would need to spin clockwise or both would need to spin counter-clockwise.

Axial Tilt is confirmed, so unless they really screw something up, you can set your planets' axes to be upside down, and therefore achieve "reverse" spin.

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6 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

No, they both would need to spin the same way they rotate. Either both would need to spin clockwise or both would need to spin counter-clockwise.

Axial Tilt is confirmed, so unless they really screw something up, you can set your planets' axes to be upside down, and therefore achieve "reverse" spin.

I don't know what I was thinking, but you are right my kind sir. My mistake. 

Although, I would like to see a binary system with prograde and retrograde revolutions. Would make it interesting. 

 

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35 minutes ago, GoldForest said:

 

I don't know what I was thinking, but you are right my kind sir. My mistake. 

Although, I would like to see a binary system with prograde and retrograde revolutions. Would make it interesting. 

 

Is that even prohibited in KSP 1? I know axial tilt is but I dont see why a planet couldnt move in a negative direction

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15 minutes ago, mcwaffles2003 said:

Is that even prohibited in KSP 1? I know axial tilt is but I dont see why a planet couldnt move in a negative direction

I don't know. Do any of the umpteen planet packs have retrograde planet revolution?

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It's computer animation, it's possible to make the planets follow a roller coaster path around the Sun, changing spin and tilt as they go. Hopefully the KSP2 team use a better rig to set the planets in motion, I can't help but feel the KSP1 one was overly complex and that's why there are so many limits to it.

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Well I know in Kopernicus you can set up the rotation period for a body (which I used of course to make Minmus spin ridiculously fast and then try to land on it) but I didn't check if I added minus in the front it would go in the other direction. Might be worth checking out.

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Its perfectly possible for both retrograde and prograde rotation and revolution within KSP 1/Kopernicus. Adding a negative sign to the period in the Properties node will reverse the rotation, while setting inclination to 180 will reverse the orbit.

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9 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

Axial tilt has been confirmed. A Uranus analogue would be cool.

I would not want any of the original planets to change that much. As to retrograde planets in other systems... I dunno, it sounds like a bit of a stretch. It'd have to be a captured interstellar object that's small enough that its orbit could be regularised through an encounter with some other planet in the system, and while I don't know enough about orbital mechanics to have a really informed opinion, it seems somewhat implausible to me that one could be captured into a stable retrograde orbit. Wouldn't it encounter something sooner or later and get re-ejected into interstellar space (if it doesn't collide)?

Quite a few exo planets we have observed in more detail have a retrograde rotation.

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2 hours ago, paul23 said:

Quite a few exo planets we have observed in more detail have a retrograde rotation

I meant retrograde orbit.

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