MaxL_1023

The issue with this is that it assumes that the planet cores form from the original protoplanetary disk before the gas dissipates. Earth and Potentially Super-Earth type planets can form from collisional accretion of smaller Moon-Mars size bodies after the gas dissipation. In fact, one theory of the solar system postulates that the current terrestrial planets formed from remnant material after an earlier generation of super-earths spiraled into the Sun after Jupiter and Saturn's migration disrupted the inner solar system. I don't think many bodies will get to 5 earth masses when forming late, but if Earth and Venus did than it is not beyond possibility to have somewhat larger bodies. These would not have to worry about hydrogen capture at any rate.

Ice Giants in the traditional sense (Methane/Hydrogen atmospheres) wouldn't form at Earth's temperature, unless you consider a Nitrogen/Oxygen/Water Vapor Atmosphere which reaches water's critical point before the nominal sea level. Then, you would have the atmosphere gradually transitioning to high-pressure forms of ice, with no liquid water. You would need more mass to hold onto hydrogen, likely more than 4 Earth Masses. The key for a planet in the 2-5 Earth Mass range is how much volatile material gets incorporated at formation. A 5 earth mass planet would have 5 times the volatile material if it formed in exactly the same spot, assuming it still loses all hydrogen and helium but holds onto water (Methane would be photodissociated back into Carbon Dioxide, Water and some escaping hydrogen). In that situation, silicate weathering should deplete most of the primordial atmosphere through plate tectonics, locking away all but a few atmospheres worth of material as carbonate rocks after the planet cools from its formation. However, if it has too much volatile material it can get an atmosphere thick enough to prevent water from condensing and turn into the "hot ice" giant - I suspect anything above 4 or 5 earth masses is likely to run into this situation. There are stable earth-like climate states for larger planets - I heard the limit somewhere near 5 earth masses before plate tectonics stops and you "forget" to weather down the atmosphere. A 2 or 3 earth mass planet might actually be better for life than earth, with a stronger magnetic field, more archipelago type landforms, shallow oceans and a longer geologically active lifetime. More study is needed though - until we get better observation data (why couldn't we have gotten the terrestrial planet finder Darn it) we are guessing. Edit: Kepler-10C is way too big - that is a hot ice type planet. It would probably have a significant hydrogen envelope if it was far enough out to have liquid water (say 270K black body instead of 584K). In fact, I suspect it still has some hydrogen in its atmosphere, just not enough to budge its mass/radius relationship.

They are probably trying to figure out how Humans built rocket parts larger than 3.75m - Jebediah would be staring at a Saturn V like a starving man at an American Buffet.

Alright, here are some configs to get different Ciro colors: A0: (Teff = 11500K): sunlightColor = 0.7567, 0.8353, 1, 1 (This is Vega) F0: (Teff = 7020K): sunlightColor = 0.9490, 0.9490, 1, 1 G0: (Teff = 5980K): sunlightColor = 1, 0.9647, 0.9255, 1 (Alpha Centauri A with a little fever) G2: (Teff = 5800K): sunlightColor = 1, 0.9529, 0.9059, 1 (Real-Life Sun Approximation) G6: (Teff = 5350K): sunlightColor = 1, 0.92, 0.85, 1 (Default - based on matching color temp) K0: (Teff = 5240K): sunlightColor = 1, 0.9137, 0.8392, 1 (This is close to Alpha Centauri B) M0: (Teff = 3800K): sunlightColor = 1, 0.7882, 0.6157, 1 (The red dwarf boundary) M5: (Teff = 3020K): sunlightColor = 1, 0.7020, 0.4431, 1 (Proxima Centauri) If you want to find anything specific, look up the color temperature you want and follow this link to get the RGB equivalents: https://academo.org/demos/colour-temperature-relationship/

How does the configuration: sunlightColor = 1, 0.92, 0.85, 1 correspond to color temperature? If I knew how it corresponded to the CIE-1931 color space I might be able to come up with alternate configs for various spectra. Changing the color without bothering with luminosity wouldn't be that big of an issue since it is purely a visual change. (Unless something strange is going on/I am dumb).

Alright. Once RSS/RP-0 gets updated for 1.2.1 I will probably give this a try. It will be interesting to do this without the tracking station.

I got a contract to eject a class E asteroid from the solar system - that I will keep. I like the idea though - it will especially help with upscaled careers. Rocket costs go up very quickly when you need to put 100 tons into orbit, needing 8+ km/s of delta-v to do so. The normal contract rewards don't cut it for interplanetary missions and hacking funds rewards also messes up facility upgrade costs.

Does this mean fulfilling the lunar impact contract, or just hitting the moon with something? It would be a lot easier to hit the moon with a dead probe core than a functional probe with batteries and an antenna, especially considering early cores can't shut down and you need 3 or 4 days of power.

The parachute cutting function is a parameter tied to velocity, not ground contact. If you land a pod on a steep slope your parachute will remain active as you roll/tumble down. I suspect that in your situation, you are touching down slow enough and level enough to stop completely, causing you to lose your parachutes.

OK, so to get everything straight: Ciro is supposed to be slightly more massive than the sun and slightly brighter, giving Gael a slightly larger AU when scaled to RSS with a 365 day year, 24 hour days. The issue is the temperature has to be lower than a star of that mass should have, requiring a larger radius to equalize the luminosity. Or, is Ciro supposed to be slightly dimmer and less massive than the sun?

I got 69 units of ore out of a 10 ton class B - if a class E is 3000 tons I might expect to get near 2000 units. The issue is the amount of force it takes to move something weighing 3000 tons (or 500 tons + the fuel you mined from it). I would need to get the setup off the ground, which takes more than 8000 m/s of delta-V in my 10x game (for LGO). Also rover physics is ridiculous now. I tested one with 4 of those new wheels and it does donuts whenever I try to steer and hits jumps even on Gael.

I found that you don't get that much fuel out of asteroids - even sticking just an ISRU, Drill, tank and engine to one will not give you enough delta-V to move it far.

I might give it a try with something ion-powered when I finish the tech tree - it would be hilarious to see what I end up with. Without ions would be whackjobian to say the least. Edit: Challenge Accepted!

Speaking of configs, a contract just came up to send a class-E asteroid onto a solar escape trajectory. I am not even sure if that is possible - getting a ship off Gael which could do it (even empty with refueling on Iota or something) would probably melt my computer. (Note, I am in 10x atm)

I feel bad for not testing this when it was under development - I was lurk-following it for quite awhile. If you want to mess with CFG files, go to the Ciro CFG inside the filepath /GPP/Ciro/Ciro.cfg Open the file in notepad (it is basically a txt file). Here is what I have in mine - the giant bolded lines are the ones I changed. Just rewrite the number there (likely 0.45) with 0.9, 1, or some number near that and things get brighter.

The asteroids in stock are not spawned in the same orbit family, with many more Kerbin-crosser bodies spawned on encounter trajectories. In GPP, the asteroids are spawned in a family of orbits corresponding to a belt between Gael and Tellumo. AFAIK, they are not supposed to intersect Gael all that often. It roughly simulates the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter - there are many more bodies there than those which intersect either Mars or Jupiter's orbit. Galileo might be able to add in more asteroids spawning near Gael, but there are so many as it is that it may become cumbersome (not to mention unrealistic, as Gael would throw these bodies either into the sun or onto an impact trajectory under shorter than geologic timescales.)

I modified the sparks config myself to let me use it as a landing engine on Tellumo. Engines this size would also be viable for sample return missions if the parts were available. A 10 KG sample capsule could be put into orbit by a spark-sized first stage. Clustering is also a possibility.

I see where my confusion came from. The paper you used for the radius formula does not cross the sun's radius at the sun's mass - a solar mass star should have 1.06 solar radii and 1.02 solar luminosities (and therefore be slightly cooler). All of this is within reasonable variation considering age, metallicity, etc. I still don't know why the systems seems so dim though - must be a wierd number somewhere, otherwise I am crazy.

Ciro must be on the high side of the HR diagram then - it has a radius larger than the Suns while being lighter and cooler. I think the PDF file with the Mod is wrong - it states that Ciro should have 0.87 solar luminosities. I might have found the issue - the 87% figure would be right assuming luminosity between stock and RSS scale would be a conversion factor of 100. I think it is actually 121, as while radius is scaled by 10 orbital distance is scaled by 11. This would explain why Kerbol is not consistent. You need a luminosity scale of 121 to normalize the solar constant.

The issue is that Ciro really, really shouldn't be brighter than the Sun (scaled of course) considering it only has 0.96 solar masses (the big one) and a 5524K effective temperature - unless it is a subgiant or something which is 12 billion years old and KSP-I is supposed to be the evacuation before the red giant phase. I suspect Kerbol was borked when you took your base values.

I took a look in the Ciro config and here is what jumped out at me: sunlightColor = 1, 0.92, 0.85, 1 (This is yellowish - no issue here since it is a little cooler than the Sun (G6 vs G2) sunlightIntensity = 0.45 (Here is an issue - shouldn't this be one if it is related to the solar constant?) scaledSunlightColor = 1, 0.92, 0.85, 1 scaledSunlightIntensity = 0.45 (Same as above, as everything is unity scaled) IVASunIntensity = 0.34 (Should be scaled along with the above, reflecting window tint, etc.) sunAU = 13984359719 (A scaled Earth AU is about 136,000,000. With Ciro's temperature Gael should be a little closer than this, not farther out. A G6 star would likely only have 80-90% of the sun's luminosity and 95% of the mass) luminosity = 1360 (Assuming this is held constant for balance) Edit: From the PDF, Ciro has 96% the mass and 87% of the luminosity. The AU should then be 93.2737% of an Earth AU (before scaling), or in game sunAU should be set to 12685054828 (roughly anyways). Tellumo should also probably be moved inwards by 5-10% to maintain plausible habitability. Every other body could stay where it is. This is assuming sunAU is how far Gael orbits - if Gael wants 1360 watts it needs to be moved in a bit.

The ambient light should have nothing directly to do with the AU distance - it should be a function of the local luminosity. If the solar flux is 1360 W/m2 at Gael then the luminosity should be equal to stock Kerbin (assuming that is accurate in itself). I flat out doubled mine in the cfg files and it still seems a bit dim.

Ciro is noticeably more yellow than Kerbol - perhaps a color cfg is off. I thought the solar constants were inconsistent with the star size due to how dim the illumination is in space - if the star is realistically proportioned then white bodies should be blinding (or very bright) when near or inside of Gael's orbit.

Note to asteroid grabbers - 6 km/s of delta-v is the minimum to get from Gael orbit to asteroid bounty. Also, class B's are a little scrawny and I am terrible at grabbing them. I hope I can get enough fuel from it to make it back to Gael, let alone tow the asteroid back. Update: I got 69 units of ore from a 10 ton asteroid. My own fault for picking a carbonaceous asteroid I guess, if it makes a difference.

I am going to try and wrangle one of those Tellumo/Gael belt asteroids. If any new craters are spotted on Gael can you name them for me?