EndIris

It's not completely done yet. I still want to get scatters and all the anomalies and other launch sites working, write the little texts you get when you do science, and compatibility with Parallax and a custom EVE config would be nice, but at least it looks pretty good.

I decided Kerbin should look better.

Made a small addition to my mothership today. IRL they would never face into the sun while docking, but it made a great screenshot.

Taking a brief break from KSP, figured I'd drop some knowledge here first. Discussion is welcome, I will gladly fix anything people can find that is off the mark. These tables are to be used in combination with DeltaV maps to help you plan out your missions. The upper left table shows the DV to get from a moon of a planet to a target planet by dropping from the moon to its parent, and then ejecting with the help of the Oberth effect. For example, it would take a total of 270 DV to burn from low Minmus orbit into a low pass of Kerbin and another burn to an Eve flyby. Or, conversely, it would take 270 DV to come from Eve, decelerate at Kerbin periapsis, and circularize around Minmus. The table below it shows the DV to get from a moon of a planet to a target planet without a burn to a low pass. For example, it would take 980 DV to eject directly from Vall to a Kerbin encounter. This one works in reverse as well, in that it would take 980 DV to insert at Vall coming from Kerbin. Below this chart there is a list of the cases in which it is beneficial to use the Oberth effect. The upper right table shows the altitude at which it takes the least DeltaV to eject from one planet to another, or one Jool moon to another. There is always a sweet spot between getting the benefits of the Oberth effect and the extra DeltaV it takes to climb out of a gravity well. From Kerbin, a 360km orbit takes the least DeltaV to eject to Jool, so that may be a good spot to assemble or refuel your ship. It will take more DV to get to 360km from a low orbit, though, so this altitude only minimizes the transfer DV. Like the other charts though, it works in reverse as well, so if you want to set up a comms satellite in a circular Eve orbit, the altitude at which the injection is the least is 30600km. (For this chart, SOI means the optimal altitude is as high as possible inside the SOI, and 0 means the optimal altitude is as low as possible) The Jool moon transfer table functions as a DeltaV map for the Jool system. For example, it would take 265 DV to eject from low Vall orbit to flyby Laythe. It also works in reverse, so a trip from low Vall orbit to low Laythe orbit and back without aerobraking would cost 265+600+600+265 DeltaV. Below this chart, the sum of all the rows and columns for each body are listed. Bop would be the best place for a Jool refueling station because it takes the least total DeltaV to visit every other body one at a time. Combining these charts can provide a lot of insight into your mission planning. Most people agree that the best place to refuel before an interplanetary mission is Minmus, and the charts agree with that. However, the optimal transfer altitude to Eve is very close to the orbit of the Mun. Refueling and transferring from the Mun is only 80 DV more, and it may pay for itself with easier timing and less inclination changes. Another common misconception is that Pol is the best moon to refuel on in the Jool system. However, Bop requires much less DeltaV to transfer to and from the other moons in the system, and requires less DeltaV to go to and from Kerbin because of its higher orbital speed. Even Vall may be a better refueling stop than Pol; Laythe, Tylo, and Kerbin can all be more easily reached from Vall than from Pol's high and inclined orbit. Additionally, many people use the Oberth effect of the parent planet when ejecting from a moon back to Kerbin. There is only one case in the game when it is obviously beneficial: when it is possible to exit Gilly at its apoapsis, swing all the way down to Eve, and eject to Kerbin. Oftentimes Gilly's orbit does not make this possible, but when it is, you can save over 100 DV. Disclaimers: most of the numbers were calculated, not taken from gameplay, and may not factor in SOI boundaries or other gameplay quirks. They do not factor in eccentricity or inclination, or the altitude of your starting or destination orbits. They are rounded for a reason. I took them from the sources below and edited a few places where there were obvious faults. Sauce: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/116160-best-place-for-an-interplanetary-launch-facility/#comment-2070116 https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/33699-efficient-hohmann-transfer-altitudes/

That's a png file there. To convert to a dds you would rotate the image 180 degrees and use an online dds converter to put it into KSP using Kopernicus. Then use KittopiaTech to export the dds with transparency (otherwise the land will look really shiny). This isn't a difficult process but it's not something I am particularly interested in doing right now, so if someone does please post the results. I might be able to later. I used gimp to make it. About 80% of the land color was done manually with the airbrush, but I did try to make sure it didn't look too different to the Kerbin we all know and love.

Sorry for late reply, haven't been on here much lately.

Been spending a little time lately on a new texture for Kerbin. The primary difference is that it has accurate climate based on latitude and terrain. The desert seen here is in the rain shadow of mountains to the south and east. Lakes and oceans have green areas downwind where evaporated water falls as precipitation. Mountains have snow on the sides facing away from the sun. Some rivers have visible runoff into the ocean, and blue-green coral reefs are often found in shallow water. Keep in mind that this is not a screenshot from KSP due to dds conversion issues, but it's a start.

Go right ahead. I don't plan on doing anything else with this mod, so seeing someone else look at it is nice. Feel free to change anything you want.

Nova said... I might be able to use ReaserchBodies if you can prevent a planet from being discoverable through telescopes, but I don't think that's a feature. EDIT: So there is a MaxTrackDistance field for the telescope, which I could probably put the planet outside of to make it un-discoverable. But that still doesn't help me with the SSTV signals.

Though I haven't seen it in action, apparently Lili does not have an orbital line in the latest GPP. I've thought about looking into Kittopia at the stock Duna, but I'd have to install 1.3.1, according to the people in it's thread. I'll check out contract configurator. It might be all I need, but Ideally, the player would have to manually decode the signal and calculate the orbit themselves.

I've thought about making a little mod to add the rest of the storyline to KSP that NovaSilisko originally thought of. It wouldn't impact the game unless you actively tried to follow the storyline. Nova said there would be an ancient alien race who disappeared to the outer system, and in order to find their planet... I'd like to have multiple SSTV signals throughout the system, and each of them with its own distinct signal. I haven't seen anyone do this, but I was wondering if it has been done, and if so, how to do it. Thanks.

Just pretend he's Chris Floyd.

After downloading GPP for the first time, I loved the planets and hated the orbits. Seriously, why is Thalia's orbit blue?!? But anyway, I wrote up a quick config to change the colors. It also changes GEP, even though those colors were pretty good anyway. Just delete that if you don't want it. Copy paste the following into a MM config somewhere in your GameData folder.

Yeah, it's kind of weird how slowly Europa rotates. I don't know how else to explain that one side is completely melted. Exploring the dark side would hard, too. But anyway, 1.2.0 released. Has some small changes to cloud configs and the cloud texture, to give it higher contrast and hopefully look a little brighter.

Version 1.1.0 Released This basically just makes it compatible with games that aren't RSS. It also fixes the clouds and changes some stuff in heightmaps and PQS color maps.

Yes, adding Mount Zeus and other things on Europa should be done soon. In the meantime, I'm trying to get it to work with stock games and GPP games (in 1.4.3). I've been thinking for both I will just add Europa to a Lagrange point of Kerbin, and make it tidally locked to the sun. I don't think Ganymede really fits into the stock game very well, but if anyone has suggestions for how/where to add it I will listen.

If anyone is wondering the planets can be found here:

2001 Planet Pack - for KSP+RSS or KSP Stock After finishing the 2001 A Space Odyssey series for the third time, I decided to take the Lucifer system and put it into KSP RSS. Nothing has been changed outside the Jupiter System, though future plans could change that, depending on interest. It has not been designed with realism in mind, but how I wanted it to be and look. Lucifer, for example, is way too small to be realistic, but is pretty massive as it is. The other moons have been changed based on the descriptions in the books, primarily 2061 and 3001. While this mod is designed for RealSolarSystem, configs are included to put Europa into the stock game or into GPP. In the stock game, it is located in Kerbin's L5 point. In GPP, it is in a low-ish orbit around Tellumo. In stock, it also contains oxygen in its atmosphere. Lucifer Io Europa Ganymede Callisto has not actually been changed. ONLY KNOWN TO WORK IN KSP+RSS 1.3.1, OR IN KSP 1.4.1 DOWNLOAD HERE Includes Environmental Visual Enhancements configs. I have no idea how to do support for Scatterer, so it's not planned. Also haven't tested or added support for any with other visual mods like DOE or PlanetShine. All other info should be in the ReadMe. Install like any other mod. Feedback is greatly appreciated! This was basically just for fun, but if people like it I can develop further.

So it was just a normal day in KSP. I was screwing around testing some stuff on a planet I'm working on, and decided to hop to another location. On the way, however, I remembered I need to repack my parachutes. So at about 80km and 600 m/s, Jeb hopped out of the craft. I didn't expect there to be much air up there, but there was. Jeb was thrown 12 km away from the ship, and I was just testing, so I thought I should revert flight. "Wait a second!" I told myself. "You could totally get Jeb! 10km isn't that far! It's just like a normal rendezvous! I've done tons of those!" So I turned on my rockets and went right back to catch up with Jeb, passing him by over 2.5km and 250 m/s. Woops. My altitude was probably around 55 km by this point. Try again. Jeb has a lot of drag, so he has basically stopped moving horizontally and only falls vertically around 350m/s. I'm about 4 km away, so I move towards him a little more slowly and deploy the airbrakes to slow me down to a similar speed as him. I turned on infinite propellant because, again, I was just testing stuff. Manage to park right next to him for a while, except that the airbrakes aren't enough and I'm still falling way faster than him. I use Jeb's EVA pack (pressing control the whole time) to get close to the ship. The only issue is, I can't find the hatch. Playing in 1.3.1, so the MK 2 Command pod has that weird door still, and I couldn't find it. The rocket is tilted to the side at about 45 degrees, so I switch to it and make it hold vertical so I can find the hatch easier. Quick look around shows the hatch is on the far side, so I switch to Jeb to fly him over there. But Jeb isn't there. When I wasn't holding control, he floated right away, and was now over a kilometer above the rocket. I was in target mode so I couldn't see my speed well, but I was around 18 km up. If I was careful I probably could have landed the rocket, and then landed Jeb before he crashed into the water That would be pointless, though, because I could have done that all along, and now I was committed to catching him. I pointed the rocket to surface radial out and thrusted until I had the same vertical speed as Jeb, then throttled down to keep that speed. Jeb was still a kilometer or so above the rocket, so I flew him down and and was about to get in. I moved towards the capsule and... Bounced off. I hate when that happens. I was going, like, 1 m/s, but still bounced. Jeb was incapacitated for 5 nail biting seconds as we fell toward the water. This time, I moved in hurriedly but slowly to avoid that accident again. Jeb finally got in the capsule. I finally look at the altitude gauge and find I'm less than 2 km above the water, moving at 180 m/s. 12 seconds more and Jeb would have died. Luckily this ship has 3G acceleration, so I floor the throttle and head towards land. About 30 seconds later we are safely landed, and I have completed my first ever atmospheric rendezvous in KSP.

Kerbin Circumnavigation - almost stock, but because of the MechJeb part it counts as modded, even though it was only used to hold the W key and heading. Full post here: Stays within 45 degrees of the equator, and spent about equal parts in the northern and southern hemispheres, so it probably counts. The goal was to avoid water, but I still ended up crossing it seven times because of staying near the equator. If I did this again I might try a polar route, because if you flew the rover to a good starting spot it could probably spent more on land than I did here.

I'd like to submit an entry for the Elkano Challenge in KSP 1.4.3. Took 30 days in-game, and about two weeks IRL. I was almost always sitting at the computer while I drove. I used MechJeb to hold speed and heading, but not anything else. I did have a MechJeb part on here, so I guess this will qualify as Modded even though I didn't mean it to be and all other parts and physics are stock. I've never spent any time on the surface of Kerbin besides launching and landing craft, so this was definitely new for me. Travelling across the land wasn't actually as bad as I thought; I quicksaved ~250 times, while only loading a few dozen. The route I took stayed entirely between 45N and 45S, so I had to cross water 7 times, and mountains 3 times. I averaged 25-30 m/s on land, though got up to 70 on some slopes. I could get 25 m/s on water at full throttle, but could get 20 m/s for two thirds the fuel so I did that. I still had to refuel once, which further made me hate the mini-converter. Anyway, pics. The route. KSC is the cluster of two flags above and to the right of the crater, on the other side of Kerbin. I went over Booster Bay down the peninsula on the other side, then hopped across two islands to the next continent. Driving across that took ages, but there were mountain crossings I set up which helped the boredom. Then I drove down the peninsula to 42S, then came up it, which you can see in the front. Two more Ocean crossings got me to the Desert continent, and another returned me back to Kafrica and the KSC. Ignore the HyperEdit icon, I didn't use it. The craft. Looking back, I probably could have replaced the mining section with fuel and removed the need to refuel, but that's fine. I spent 10 days mining in one location, which definitely slowed me down. Overall, it was a good craft, though, and I'm proud of it. Hopefully this is enough documentation, and will post about this in the main Elkano thread once approved. Full Album: https://imgur.com/gallery/4Cbik8Z