[1.8.x] DMagic Orbital Science: New Science Parts [v1.4.3] [11/2/2019]

[Daishi]

Also, will you be doing more of those informative posts about the instruments? I enjoyed reading those.

Same here, they're great

[ShadowDragon8685]

Forgive me if this has been answered before, but...

When I installed DMagic Orbital Science in the past, in conjunction with ScanSAT, I found that parts like the telescope simply acted as redundant ScanSAT type sensors, replacing their own science-gathering mechanisms strictly with ScanSAT functionality.

Is this intended behavior, or a bug? I would very much like these sensors to retain their own science-gathering behavior, but also be able to use them as ScanSAT devices. If it is intended behavior, how could I modify mine so they work as I would like? If it's not intended behavior, what could be causing it?

I'm freshly reinstalling all of my mods after the .23.5 update, so if it was something wonky, well, hopefully it won't happen this time. But I'd still like to know if that's intended behavior or not.

[DMagic]

DMagic, if you are still looking for ideas for a atmospheric sensor perhaps the Curiosity REMS might give you some inspiration.

I've also been looking at Pathfinder's ASI/MET instrument, it seems to collect the same kind of data that are referred to in the science reports for KSP's atmospheric sensor. It's the boom on the far left of this picture, on the landing platform, not the rover.

I might try to combine the two different sensors, though I would have to de-phallicize the REMS instrument a bit.

I've finished (or almost finished in two cases) seven Universal Storage parts for the new science bay wedges, so I'll be working on this next. Then I'll have a complete set of eight parts, enough to fill an octocore.

Also, will you be doing more of those informative posts about the instruments? I enjoyed reading those.

Yep, I guess the telescope is next if I'm going in order, so it might be a little shorter than the last two.

Forgive me if this has been answered before, but...

When I installed DMagic Orbital Science in the past, in conjunction with ScanSAT, I found that parts like the telescope simply acted as redundant ScanSAT type sensors, replacing their own science-gathering mechanisms strictly with ScanSAT functionality.

That was fixed in version 7.1, SCANsat versions include both modules. I might also include some Module Manager configs to simplify this in future updates, and also try to integrate the two functions more closely; triggering the deploy animation when activating the SCANsat module for instance.

Edited June 15, 2014 by DMagic

[ShadowDragon8685]

I've also been looking at Pathfinder's ASI/MET instrument, it seems to collect the same kind of data that are referred to in the science reports for KSP's atmospheric sensor. It's the boom on the far left of this picture, on the landing platform, not the rover.

I might try to combine the two different sensors, though I would have to de-phallicize the REMS instrument a bit.

You wouldn't have to. If it's practical enough that all of NASA could send it into space despite looking juvenile, KSP players can roll with it. Hell, Scott Manley would probably get some jokes out of it.

I've finished (or almost finished in two cases) seven Universal Storage parts for the new science bay wedges, so I'll be working on this next. Then I'll have a complete set of eight parts, enough to fill an octocore.

Oh, goodie. I've just unlocked the first of your wedge sensors, the magnetometer boom. Fits like a glove in the wedge system thingymabob, but I had to use two of them just to make it look even slightly nice. The others I used instrument bays and filled with batteries, just 'cause.

That was fixed in version 7.1, SCANsat versions include both modules. I might also include some Module Manager configs to simplify this in future updates, and also try to integrate the two functions more closely; triggering the deploy animation when activating the SCANsat module for instance.

Oh, thank goodness.

[DMagic]

I managed to cram a telescope in the science bay. It's a bit smaller than the default telescope, but I think it worked out well. And if I ever decide to get really fancy it's on a rotating and pivoting base, that could be something to play with.

[vardicd]

What planets moons can the Anomalous Signal Scanner be used on? Sorry if you've answered this before.

[Ar_Taq]

All of them. There are anomalies spread throughout the Kerbol system. They could be called Easter Eggs as well. The easiest anomaly you can find is KSC itself. Good luck finding them all!

(If you really struggle finding them, get SCANsat)

[vardicd]

Oh, anomalous signal <--> Anomalies ha-ha that's... yeah... so obvious now that someone... {Facepalm}

[BPI_Bel]

Would it be possible to have a module manager patch for KSP Interstellar's Magnetometer boom science to be added to the magnetometer you made? It is quite weird to have two very similar tools on the same craft - especially now that US modules are available for your gear.

If you would prefer not to do so in the pack, could you let me know what I need to do to make it work? The few times I have tried to do MM files for science experiments I haven't been able to get them to work correctly.

[DMagic]

Would it be possible to have a module manager patch for KSP Interstellar's Magnetometer boom science to be added to the magnetometer you made? It is quite weird to have two very similar tools on the same craft - especially now that US modules are available for your gear.

If you would prefer not to do so in the pack, could you let me know what I need to do to make it work? The few times I have tried to do MM files for science experiments I haven't been able to get them to work correctly.

More Module Manager support is planned for the next version. This includes adding SCANsat modules to the appropriate parts, making Universal Storage parts available, and more stock science reports.

I'll see about adding support for the Interstellar magnetometer too. I will probably do it using my own science module instead of the default ModuleScienceExperiment used by KSPI, this should prevent some of the problems of having two experiments on the same part.

[vardicd]

Just curious, the anomalous signal sensor doesn't seem to pick up the monoliths, is that by design?

[Kerbal01]

what new parts do you have planned? more US conversions?

[DMagic]

Just curious, the anomalous signal sensor doesn't seem to pick up the monoliths, is that by design?

That's a technical limitation of how anomalies are classified. Anything that shows up on the SCANsat map can be scanned by the anomaly scanner. Individual structures that are part of a larger group of buildings can't be scanned separately.

what new parts do you have planned? more US conversions?

More US conversions, three are complete, the goo pod, the materials bay and the telescope. A fourth, the atmospheric sensor, is almost done, I just need to finish texturing. I think only the goo pod will have asteroid reports, so those also need to be written.

Depending on when 0.24 is released, that being the time when I want to update, I also have three new parts in some stage of development that may be included. The multispectral imager that I showed a long time ago is finally complete, it just needs a bit of tweaking and a lot of science reports written for it. We'll see how much I can get done for the other two soon.

I also plan on implementing some version of an upgraded asteroid science system. This update will probably only a have a simplified version of allowing repeated science experiments for each asteroid class; I've been working on a much better system and maybe some method for assigning asteroid spectral classes, but that's a lot more complicated.

[LosMag]

Hello all, sorry if my english is bad... I'm french.

First of all, well done for this great mod ! It's very good.

I'm sorry if my question is already asked but I don't understand english very well ;

Since I installed this mod, some things of the game (like "Goo mystery"or "EVA report") doesn't work any more... Maybe It's normal ?

[Mihara]

Speaking of particle collection experiments... If possible, they should permit collection and return of asteroid dust samples.

[DMagic]

Hello all, sorry if my english is bad... I'm french.

First of all, well done for this great mod ! It's very good.

I'm sorry if my question is already asked but I don't understand english very well ;

Since I installed this mod, some things of the game (like "Goo mystery"or "EVA report") doesn't work any more... Maybe It's normal ?

This sounds like what happens when two mods are adding science experiments with the same experiment ID. This was a problem with an older version of Yogui87's Lionhead Aerospace probe and lander pack, but the latest version fixes it.

That would be the first thing I would check. It's also possible that some other mod is causing the same problem, or that there are duplicates od the mod somewhere.

Let me know if you do find another mod using the same experiment IDs as mine.

Speaking of particle collection experiments... If possible, they should permit collection and return of asteroid dust samples.

That's definitely the plan for this part; it will allow for collections in space and while near an asteroid. It will probably work similar to the drill, allowing for multiple samples to be collected from a single part. The experiment could then be reset at a lab or brought home for a much higher science return.

[LosMag]

This sounds like what happens when two mods are adding science experiments with the same experiment ID. This was a problem with an older version of Yogui87's Lionhead Aerospace probe and lander pack, but the latest version fixes it.

That would be the first thing I would check. It's also possible that some other mod is causing the same problem, or that there are duplicates od the mod somewhere.

Let me know if you do find another mod using the same experiment IDs as mine.

Thank you for your reply,

I uninstalled Lionhead Aerospace probe and lander pack and, indeed, no more problems with your mod. I downloaded: Lionhead Aerospace probe and lander pack 1.3 and everything is OK! Thank you very much.

[sumghai]

So I noticed this post in the Add-on Request and Support subforums:

I would love to have a logo for my mod; I really hope we get to use logos in-game to go along with the stock part companies, but even if we can't I would like one anyway.

Unfortunately I have neither the skills required to make a high quality logo, nor any real idea for what it should look like. It's a science parts mod, focused mostly on un-manned probe science, but I'm not really sure how that should translate into a logo.

I can try to come up with some ideas this weekend and maybe look at some NASA mission logos, but any help that you can give with actually making it would be great.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

My main inspiration was the real-life Orbital Sciences logo, so I opted for nice, vivid red color scheme. I also prefer to keep my logo designs as simple and (somewhat) easily reproduceable as possible.

(ASIDE: I've done a couple of other KSP manufacturer logos before, but I didn't feel like participating in the logo contest - still, kudos to all the official winners anyway)

[Starstrider42]

Looks very orbital. And sciency.

If DMagic likes the design, I'd be happy to convert it to a PartCatalog icon.

[DMagic]

That's fantastic. If I spent a week working on it I don't think I could come up with something so clean and well made.

I assume there are specific dimensions required for company logos (the official ones all seem to be 256 * 160, the same as flags), which this could easily be modified to fit. I'll definitely use it for that if possible and also use it for screenshots, forum threads, etc...

Thanks a lot sumghai.

Edit: Starstrider, I finally got around to testing your module manager configs. Everything works ok.

In the next update SCANsat modules will automatically be added to the Anomaly Scanner and the new Multispectral Imaging Platform instead of using the old clunky method of adding or replacing parts. The Universal Storage parts will also configure themselves automatically so that they will be hidden from the VAB and the R&D center if you don't have Universal Storage installed.

Edited July 6, 2014 by DMagic

[Starstrider42]

Here's my proposed icon to represent DMagic Orbital Science in PartCatalog. If DMagic and sumghai approve, I'd like to submit this for including in the next PartCatalog release.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

(Edit: Also, does anybody know how to control the size of these imgur albums?)

Edited July 6, 2014 by Starstrider42

[kiwiak]

Will there be some new sensors except Multispectral Imaging Platform and US parts?

[DMagic]

Here's my proposed icon to represent DMagic Orbital Science in PartCatalog. If DMagic and sumghai approve, I'd like to submit this for including in the next PartCatalog release.

Looks great, that's fine with me to use it.

(Edit: Also, does anybody know how to control the size of these imgur albums?)

No idea.

Will there be some new sensors except Multispectral Imaging Platform and US parts?

That depends on when 0.24 is released. If it isn't next week I'll probably have time to make the solar particle/space dust/asteroid dust collector. I've finished most of the coding work to get multiple use parts like the drill working with a standardized part module and I have a pretty good idea of how I want the part to look and animate. It shouldn't take long to make the model and texture.

[sumghai]

Here's my proposed icon to represent DMagic Orbital Science in PartCatalog. If DMagic and sumghai approve, I'd like to submit this for including in the next PartCatalog release.

Looks great, that's fine with me to use it.

I concur - let's get that logo in the first post of the thread as well

[DMagic]

Chapter 1: Radio and Plasma Wave Science

Chapter 2: Magnetometer

Chapter 3: Telescopes and Imaging Systems

Chapter 4: Laser Ablation

Chapter 5: Core Drill and Biological Experiments

Chapter 6: Neutron Reflections and Subsurface Water

Chapter 7: X-Ray Diffraction and Surface Composition

Telescopes, making small things look bigger since the 1600s. The End.

OK, while small refracting telescopes are fairly simple and common, the kind of instruments used for astronomy research are very different.

Reflecting Telescopes

The first thing to note about bigger telescopes is that they never use lenses to collect and focus light the way that a refracting telescope does.

As a lens gets wider it also gets thicker and therefore starts to get very heavy. For space telescopes this is obviously a problem because extra weight in general is bad. But it also becomes difficult for any system to support all of that weight. A lens can only be supported along its edges, so very large lenses tend to sag a little bit in the middle, affecting the refraction of light. It is also much more likely that large lenses will contain imperfections or tiny bubbles in the glass that distort the light.

Reflecting telescopes, on the other hand, use a mirror, which can be supported along its entire back side and is made of a much thinner layer of glass coated with a very thin reflective layer. This allows for much larger and lighter telescopes to be created and is ideal for large space telescopes like the 2.4m Hubble (which is supposedly similar in size and construction to the Key Hole spy satellites, of which there are generally five or six in orbit), and the 3.5m Herschel space telescope . There are several terrestrial telescopes with a single mirror of around 8m in diameter.

The support system for the mirror also allows for some rather interesting applications, such as intentionally creating small distortions in the shape of the mirror. This can be used to account for atmospheric distortion in surface based telescopes and greatly increases the quality of the images collected.

Mirrors also allow for segmented construction; using several smaller mirrors positioned to focus light onto a single secondary mirror. This allows for the construction of much larger telescopes, as single mirrors become impractical above 5-8m in diameter. This is also, again, useful for space telescopes, as the mirrors can be folded up to fit inside of a smaller fairing then unfurled to create a very large aperture, such as the 18-segment, 6.5m James Webb Telescope.

There is one obvious drawback to using mirrors as the primary element of a telescope. In most designs the light is reflected off of the primary mirror and onto a secondary mirror placed directly in front of it. This means that some of the light is blocked by the secondary mirror itself as well as its support structures. This reduces the overall sensitivity of the telescope and introduces some optical artifacts. The braces holding the secondary mirror in place are responsible for the X-shaped, bright lines of light visible in some of the brighter stars in the Hubble image below.

The typical, camera-style telescope records images by focusing light collected by the mirrors onto an array of CCD detectors. These simply collect light within some certain range of wavelengths. Through the use of filter wheels, where individual filters that block or allow the passage of certain wavelengths of light can be quickly rotated in front of the detectors, more selective images can be recorded.

When color photos from Hubble or other space telescopes and cameras are released you are actually seeing a composite of several images taken through a number of filters (this is why objects might have fuzzy, or rainbow-like edges). These are combined to give either a "true-color" representation of the image, or a "false-color" composite, where several, normally-invisible wavelengths are shown with arbitrarily chosen colors.

We could stare at Hubble images all day, but instead here is something from the not-nearly-given-enough-attention Herschel telescope showing an IR view of the top of the Horsehead Nebula, compared with the visible/near-IR view from Hubble on the right. The blue, green, and red colors represent different IR wavelengths, and the pink shows the areas with brightest emissions, indicating newly formed stars.

Other Imaging Systems

These kinds of large aperture telescopes are common for optical, near-infrared, and ultraviolet astronomy. But there are a number of other types of imaging systems used for observations throughout the electromagnetic spectrum.

Radio Telescopes

At the low energy end of the spectrum, radio waves, it is possible to build absurdly large telescopes like the Arecibo Observatory with its 305m reflector. Radio telescopes don't require a solid mirror, only a metallic mesh, making construction of such large devices much simpler. It is also possible to combine observations from several telescopes to increase the effective resolution. The Very Large Array uses 27 25m dishes that can be independently moved and have the resolution of a 36km diameter dish (though not nearly the sensitivity of such a large dish).

High Energy Telescopes

High energy photons require some very different techniques to capture usable data. X-rays cannot practically be focused by any standard mirror or lens, they would simply absorb or be transparent to X-rays. Something called a Wolter telescope is used at these wavelengths; these instruments use mirrors at very low incident angles (normal telescope mirrors/lenses are set at nearly 90^o to the incoming light) to reflect x-rays to a single focal point. Because these mirrors can only reflect X-rays at around 2-3^o they have a very narrow field-of-view, but by combining several mirrors can still produce very valuable data.

Gamma Ray telescopes don't really have any method of focusing or altering the path of gamma ray photons. They instead rely on mathematically reconstructing the path of the photon as it passes through several layers of the detector. They have very low resolution but a very wide field-of-view.

Spectroscopy

Unlike the camera-like telescopes discussed above, there are a number of spectrographic imaging systems designed to give a more detailed analysis of the distribution of wavelengths recorded in an image. Rather than collect an entire image, possible using filtered light, these instruments look at a limited segment of an image while separating the incoming light into its component wavelengths.

As an example, the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), one of the instruments that my imaging platform is based on, uses several spectrographs to collect visible and infrared light. This system uses a narrow slit to only allow a thin line of light to pass through. A diffraction grating then reflects that single strip of light, separating the component wavelengths like a prism, which then fall on the detector. This essentially takes a single column of light and creates a two-dimensional image, recording how much of each wavelength is present in each row of that column.

By sliding the slit one step to the side (or moving the mirror to accomplish the same effect) another image is recorded, after repeating this several times the entire field-of-view is captured, creating a kind-of three dimensional recording. In one dimension you have each row of light, from top to bottom, in the second you have each column, capturing the entire field of view as it passes in front of the diffraction grating, and in the third you have the entire recorded spectrum of light for each row and column of light.

These kinds of data allow for a very detailed look within a range of the electromagnetic spectrum. In particular they can be used to identify the surface or atmospheric composition. Elements on the surface will absorb and reflect certain wavelengths of light dependent upon their composition. Elements in the atmosphere can block or allow the transmission of light as it passes through.

A particular method for studying atmospheres is to conduct solar or stellar occultation observations. The imaging system is first pointed at the sun or a bright star. As a planet moves into view its atmosphere will begin to come between the imager and the star. At first only the thin upper layers are recorded, but gradually the deeper layers of the atmosphere pass between the two. Data can be collected throughout the atmosphere, allowing for a recording of each layer's composition based on the wavelengths of light absorbed or transmitted.

A similar technique is used for studying events like the cryovolcanism on Enceladus or the composition of Saturn's rings. The two images of Enceladus below demonstrate this: the first clearly shows geysers erupting from the surface, the second shows Saturn's faint E-ring backlit by the sun (this isn't exactly a solar occultation, because the sun is actually behind Saturn); the ring is probably generated by the materials being vented from Enceladus, the bright object visible in the middle.

This image reveals the many layers of a small segment of Titan's atmosphere taken during a close encounter by Cassini. Spectroscopic images will reveal the composition of each layer of the atmosphere by recording the wavelengths of light absorbed and comparing that to the known behavior of compounds that could be found in the atmosphere.

Next time we'll look at some of the rover-based instruments and how they work.

Edited March 3, 2016 by DMagic
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