Changing Sol into Kerbol

[sevenperforce]

Randal Munroe has some ideas about changing our solar system for the better. Looks like it would make it much more like the Kerbol system....

I can get behind more asteroids.....

[StrandedonEarth]

Well, Pluto was a moon of Neptune until it got hit by an alien spacecraft moving at 0.8c, which knocked it out of Neptunian orbit...  

[Superfluous J]

If you've axing Uranus for Neptune at least have the decency of tilting the new Neptune about 90 degrees.

[UmbralRaptor]

How does Triton feel about Neptune getting a second large moon?

[cubinator]

6 hours ago, UmbralRaptor said:

How does Triton feel about Neptune getting a second large moon?

Swap Pluto and Triton, and make Triton a planet.

 

Additionally, maybe make that super-Earth a water planet. We don't have any water planets and it's really hip to have a water planet.

Edited January 23, 2020 by cubinator

[kerbiloid]

The leftmost mysterious planets would be too hot to keep something more intereseting than lava, so just several asteroids instead.

More asteroids in the belt are useless.
Redistribute the asteroid belt in the gaps between the planets, especially closer to the Earth to have space pirates and hermits, and between far planets to have stashes.
Add monsteroids, i.e. unusual and monstrous ones rather than just flying stones..

Moar meteoroids. We need laser turrets and antimeteorite missile nukes to get really far.

To mate Pluto and Neptune is bad idea, as Pluto is already a double planet with specific landscape of both parts.
Keep the Pluto free.

Make Neptune and Uranus a double ice giant and put this pair on the Saturn orbit, after removing the latter.
1. It's funny. 2. It allows funny gravitational maneuvers together with Jupiter.
(Triton should stay with them, as we need a place to watch them both in the sky from ground).

Put the PlutoCharon on the post-Uranus orbit, as decades of flight is too bothering.

Scatter precious and rare metals across the Mercury and Venus surfaces to motivate and stimulate.
Mercury - lead lakes, melting daily and freezing nightly.
Venus - a lot of radioactives to make its atmosphere mysteriously glow.
Platinoids on both, just4trollz.

Don't move the Mars, it's sitting exactly where it belongs to.
It takes 2.5 years to get to there, and that's exactly what a human can survive without artifical gravity onboard.

Moar mysterious ruins on the Mars.
Repair the Face and add some real geological structures to look like channels, otherwise how did the astronomers of the past mistake too much when drawing them.

Flying icelands in the Juposaturn atmosphere. Especially above the Red Spot.
Additionally to the Juposaturn Polar Hexagon and Red Spot add some mysterios local depression and local air hill of similar size, one by another.
And some radial gas jets.

Merge Europa to Callisto, and make Calliopa.
To make Occam happy, merge Ganymede and Enceladus to them. Anyway one is under radiation, and another one is too far, so we don't really need them.
So, a big Juposaturn moon Calliopa. So, it's kinda Laythe.
Also this will require one submarine instead of four

Leave Io where it's now. Add moar sulfur and other chemicals to make its geysers more colored.

Make the inner Oort cloud at the nowadays Neptune place, beyond the moved Pluto.

Edited January 23, 2020 by kerbiloid

[mikegarrison]

Has any human ever spent 2.5 years continuously in freefall? No. So what makes you think 2.5 years is the limit?

[Xd the great]

You know what? Just place Earth between 2 gigantic, high density asteroid belts. Then Space tech gets a lot more funding...

Edited January 23, 2020 by Xd the great

[kerbiloid]

7 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

Has any human ever spent 2.5 years continuously in freefall? No. So what makes you think 2.5 years is the limit?

Humans have spent about 1.5 years in freefall. Probably they can raise it twice, especially having a medical centrifuge.
But unlikely it makes sense to continue raising the bets.

Edited January 23, 2020 by kerbiloid

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

2.5 years is also a pretty long Mars transfer time, it may take some extra dV but 2.5 years is by no means the fastest possible Mars transfer. You can get there in 6 months with current technology... granted, it varies a bit for crewed missions depending on whose proposal you pay attention to, but the point remains.

[Dirkidirk]

On 1/23/2020 at 1:23 AM, kerbiloid said:

Don't move the Mars, it's sitting exactly where it belongs to.
It takes 2.5 years to get to there, and that's exactly what a human can survive without artifical gravity onboard.

actually It takes about 9 months for chemical rockets to get there and 3 for vasimr. it takes 2.5 years to go to duna mars and back.

 

anyway about the model Itself I do not agree with fusing saturn and jupiter (the more planets the better, besides they are to iconic) or removing uranus (I won't be able to make fun of it anymore). mars should stay where it is and making it a moon of earth is impossible for that it would immediately make a binary system (the more planets the better, I also would no longer have a place to put my space elevator), and pluto should stay where it is (I would actually make it bigger to make it a planet). but I do agree with the planets in mercury's orbit, the rings and moon around venus, the super earth, and the extra asteroids.

Edited January 30, 2020 by Dirkidirk

[kerbiloid]

50 minutes ago, ThatGuyWithALongUsername said:

2.5 years is by no means the fastest possible Mars transfer. You can get there in 6 months

But you have to stay in zero-g for 2.5 years in total, including waiting for the return journey if something goes wrong.

Or to visit an orbital station without landing.

Or to visit a Phobos station without landing on Mars.

Or if you have to quickly abandon the surface base.

So, 2.5 years is a typical Martian flight including safety margins.

Edited January 23, 2020 by kerbiloid

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

12 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

But you have stay in zero-g for 2.5 years in total, including waiting for the return journey if something goes wrong.

Or to visit an orbital station without landing.

Or to visit a Phobos station without landing on Mars.

Or if you have to quickly abandon the surface base.

So, 2.5 years is a typical Martian flight including safety margins.

That's fair

[sevenperforce]

11 hours ago, cubinator said:

Swap Pluto and Triton, and make Triton a planet.

 

Additionally, maybe make that super-Earth a water planet. We don't have any water planets and it's really hip to have a water planet.

Give Pluto to Neptune, and fuse Triton with Ganymede to use as the core of a super-earth water planet.

[Nuke]

can we move europa so that it orbits the super earth? the merged jupiter-saturn's moon system is a little crowded. maybe we can keep urannus, but as a moon of same, or just tilt jupiter-saturn 90 degrees and add its mass to the whole shebang.

makes me wonder if we merged all the gas giants if we can haz a second star.

Edited January 26, 2020 by Nuke

[Space Nerd]

No, the mass isn't enough.

Saturn is only something like 0.3 times the mass of Jupiter, and Uranus combined with Neptune are about 10% of the mass of Jupiter.

Which falls short of the minimum mass of a star(80 times the mass of Jupiter) by a lot.

[sevenperforce]

18 hours ago, Nuke said:

can we move europa so that it orbits the super earth? the merged jupiter-saturn's moon system is a little crowded. maybe we can keep urannus, but as a moon of same, or just tilt jupiter-saturn 90 degrees and add its mass to the whole shebang.

makes me wonder if we merged all the gas giants if we can haz a second star.

As @Space Nerd said, noap.

I had the same thought with planets -- if we merged all the superfluous moons, could we get a super-earth? Of course the answer is no, not even close.

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

I’d turn Pluto into a moon of earth. Because why not?

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

15 minutes ago, έķ νίĻĻάίή said:

I’d turn Pluto into a moon of earth. Because why not?

It would melt

 

More accurately, I'm guessing the Nitrogen would sublimate and the water ice would melt, but eventually (or immediately, not sure if the atmosphere would be enough) the lack of a magnetosphere would strip away the nitrogen atmosphere and start evaporating the water

 

Or something like that

 

IDK but it wouldn't end well for Pluto

Edited January 27, 2020 by ThatGuyWithALongUsername

[TheNeutralCat]

We definitely need another moon. Because, well, Earth has a substantial lack of mint ice cream in orbit without one.

[kerbiloid]

Me wants (for decades already) a hot pure uranium planetostar, 6000 K on surface due to the natural decay.

Edited January 31, 2020 by kerbiloid