lajoswinkler

I've got something to report. While constructing the last stage of a rover delivery system, I remembered that Kerbalism has xenon tanks. I attached two big ones and the Δv went through the roof. These tanks have way too small volume to hold this much xenon (1500827.46 units). It's very cheaty so I removed them from the structure.

I'm going to suggest adding radiation belt support for two bodies of the Sentar expansion mod: Ablate and Sentar. This mod is the grandfather of non-stock planetary bodies and in my opinion realistic parts of it (there are goofy ones I don't care about) deserve some attention from the modern mods that affect whole systems. Why Ablate? its size and proximity to Kerbol a planetary core, therefore very rich in metals it's tidally locked to Kerbol it's blasted by the stellar wind on the side facing Kerbol More details here.

OK, then I propose a compromise to make it less boring. Here's, to scale, size of the planet, SOI, proposed "magnetopause" tail and detail on the right. Dres also has one crossing the surface so this will be easy to make. As Ablate's SOI is 174 km, 150 km long tail stays inside and still looks fairly elongated. Crossing with the surface follow the ablative pattern. @N70 How can I do this?

Are you suspecting something like this, but longer (essentially comet-like)? Drop shaped or more conical? Would the boundary be pushed into the sunlit surface (after all, it's ablated)? What about the induced magnetism over the eons? Would that evolve to kind of stabilize the influence of the wind and change this shape? Maybe it would add a belt? I have this notion that such body, while still being covered in regolith, would get sandblasted until metal is exposed, and then charged particles start to hit such conductor, causing current. Over the eons, current magnetizes the metal, causing a small magnetosphere to form. I just can't figure out the shape because I'm not sure how the current would flow. @N70 Would you be interested in supporting this? I think it's a great opportunity to make an interesting environment for Kerbalism.

If you have plasma forming on your launches, you're going too fast and too shallow.

Resource: Contraceptive pills When it runs out, you get a new Kerbal each cycle. xD

This is the situation with the sungrazing ball from the mod. Observer is above the orbital plane, looking down. Planet is below, gliding on its orbit (green arrow). Rotation is synchronized with revolution. Yellow is stellar wind. Insulating regolith has been pushed or blown away from the star facing side. Gray side has some metal exposed, the rest is covered with an insulator. Obviously, if there is wind ablation going on, it means the magnetic field is pushed deeper and no longer protects it.

Remember that they're covered with a thick layer of insulators. Naked or partially naked metal core would be something different. Now that I think of it, I think the net electrical charge should be basically zero. Solar wind has both protons and electrons. If a body gets more electrons, it will repel electrons and attract protons, and vice versa. Solar wind would keep it neutral. However, would the solar wind and the ball moving through it induce a current and generate a weak magnetic field that would get into equilibrium with incoming wind? I think it would, but I can't imagine its shape.

No, that's something else. I want to develop (or get data for the modders) radiation belts for @Kragrathea's Ablate, available now by Sentar's expansion mod, so the thought experiment is limited to the description. We can simplify it with a solid metal ball orbiting a calm star like our Sun closer than Mercury does. If we start with a nonmagnetic metallic ball, it will certainly pick up some charge and establish an electrical field around it which will repel some However, eons of being inside solar flux could (should?) magnetize the ball and thus establish a magnetic field. This is a thought experiment with simplest starting conditions.

@K^2 I was hoping you would tackle this one.

Let's say there's a solid ball the size of Ceres orbiting the Sun at a very close distance inside the orbit of Mercury. Not Parker Solar probe close but close enough to get "sandblasted" by the star over the eons. It is tidally locked to the Sun. It's so close there is considerable spallation of the surface looking into the star. Other side is forever in darkness. Composition is almost all iron and nickel with some silicates near the surface and on it. No surface melting. There is zero tectonic activity and negligible depth stratification. Core is solid. Apart from the surface phenomena due to the solar wind, it's geologically dead. I've described something similar to 16 Psyche, but with the exception of being considerably larger and very close to the Sun. My question - can you imagine the shape of the solar wind deflection that would develop around it? Indeed, it has no flowing conductor inside, but it's very close to the Sun. It's made mostly out of metal and has been hit with charged particles since ever. It's effectively a conductive ball passing through a charge that is itself flowing outwards. Would the deflection be drop-like? Would poles form? Would the whole body get net positive or negative charge?

Still nothing on "NASA's Eyes". @Vanamonde Could you add "Parker solar probe" to the title so that people know this is the main thread for the mission? Thanks.

I asked the author to change it... no response. I'll ask a moderator.

It's a BV version, so it does not spin. It just uses that vectoring nozzle to keep orientation. I haven't heard why the telemetry problems occured, either. And I can't find the probe on NASA's eyes.

I'm going to say Venus. I made another diagram.

Use this thread for discussions on the Parker solar probe mission.

Somehow I missed it. Heat exhaustion beat the phone alarm. I got up like 45 min later to hear the confirmation of solar panel deployment. It was a great launch, everything went according to plan. Parker Solar probe and Star-48BV stage are on a trajectory to the corona. Interesting to know - the SRB stage will outlive the probe as its nozzle is carbon, and tank is titanium.

I've corrected and enriched a diagram I made last year. Makes you appreciate just how close this thing will fall. Open in a new window to see it better.

Aww... I think each day the window starts a bit later. Like an hour later, something like that.

Stream started. https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public

Remember, ULA's Delta IV Heavy rocket will launch the spacecraft at 07:33 UTC, but NASA's webcast will begin at 07:00 UTC.

Saturday launch weather is looking good. Anyone going to see it live? @PB666 I recommend adding "Parker solar probe" to the title, I barely managed to find this thread.

No, fluorine is not that reactive. It's entirely possible to make a safe enough system using fluorine, but the price would be too much for contractors. You won't catch fire if you dip your hand into a bag of fluorine. You'll get slight chemical burns after few seconds, then progressively worse. When you see things spontaneously igniting in fluorine, that's under a jet of fluorine focused on a small area. That's how heat builds up until it causes flames. Similar as blowing into a campfire to rekindle it. Chlorine trifluoride is way worse than fluorine and it could be used as engine fuel. Liquid, it will actually cause combustion upon spilling on a brick, and it was investigated as an oxidizer type of fuel. The problem is high chance of workers getting injured/killed during any kind of manipulation. What can be safe for an experimenter with small quantities, fume hood and special protocols, will be too dangerous for hauling around in tanks. It requires utmost precision and security.

The probe dipped below 400,000 km and it's fine as long as the timewarp is <1000x and it's pointed straight into the star. At 320,000 km first part exploded - top shield layer, but the rest survived. For now, this seems to be the lowest safe orbit for this design. It's consistent with the data I collected earlier. View from Hullcam navigational camera at 200,000 when all of the top shields were gone. At 96,586.6 km, nothing remained. Now that we have proper plates from Making history, I'll try to redesign this.

Ministry of no better things to do has decided to fund yet another project to try to establish the closest safe distance from Kerbol for unmanned vessels, and to test their performance as part of a longterm study of the effects of solar wind on materials and structures. The probe was named after Eugene Karker-Kerman, notable Kerbal heliophysicist who hypothesized that Kerbol is smelly in all observable directions. Notable mods and add-ons: Probes plus, Hullcamera VDS, Kerbalism, Mandatory RCS, Solar science, Making history DLC The probe established its first perihelion of less than 0.6 million kilometres above Kerbol by thrusting to counteract Kerbin's movement. Initial perihelion was closer to the star than the overbaked dwarf planet (naked planetary core) Ablate, but it still performed well. Several more swings are planned, each approaching closer and closer to the star.