Mitchz95

Are there any planet packs out there that have realistically-scaled planets? I want to do an RSS game with multiple solar systems, but all the packs I've seen are scaled for stock KSP (i.e., a tenth the size of real planets).

Because there are literally hundreds of them, and lumping every little ball of rock orbiting the sun into the same category as Jupiter and Earth would make the designation meaningless. Planets are the gravitational focal points that shape the solar system (aside from the Sun). The eight major planets do that; Pluto and Ceres do not.

I like the name, but it already belongs to one of Saturn's moons.

Would it be possible to salvage a few of the planets (Eden, Aelion)? I don't need the whole galaxy, just a couple of planets scaled up for RSS.

What would it take to make this compatible with RSS? I.e., scale up all the planet sizes and orbits to be more realistic?

^ That was from January of last year. The plan seems to be for SpaceX to get experience building their own constellation of Internet satellites, then start mass-producing them and selling them.

Right. I forgot that you have to be at escape velocity to reach it in the near term. Still, a propulsive orbital insertion would be nice. But again, it would have to be a pretty hefty probe.

I think any mission to this planet should be an orbiter, simply because it's so hard to get there. Obviously it would have to be a pretty heavy-duty craft; I don't even want to think about the delta-v requirements. Some kind of ion engine, but with an on-board nuclear reactor to generate power (because obviously solar won't cut it that far from the sun). Would it be possible to do multiple flybys of this planet to bring the perihelion up, then do a final insertion burn after a few solar orbits?

Brown apparently believes we can get a probe there in twenty years by doing a powered slingshot close to the sun. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2074961-how-planet-nine-may-have-been-exiled-to-solar-systems-edge/

For what it's worth, I remember reading that SpaceX is opening a factory to mass-produce satellites that can be purchased by outside entities. If they can make that work, I imagine the cost of the satellites would go down a lot.

I'd rather have Persephone (yes, I know it's Greek not Roman) but Desponia sounds cool too. As long as it's more than one syllable, I'll be happy. And I happen to like the names of Uranus' moons.

It'll probably take five years just to find it. If it exists at all.

Hmm ... perhaps we could fill out the SLS manifest by assembling a massive probe in LEO and sending it off for a fast flyby.

I don't think that's an official picture of the suit. But yeah, I think the V2 looks like a great little ship. I'm looking forward to seeing how things go.

How much would James Webb/Hubble/etc be able to tell us about this thing once we narrow down its location?

As someone who's planning to start using RSS when 1.1 drops, thank you very much.

Indeed. It would be awesome to send in a probe to take a closer look, though it would probably take several decades to get there.

The countdown is distinct for each individual vessel you launch. A ship launched from Kerbin five years ago is more likely to fail than one launched an hour ago, even if both are the exact same design.

I don't see any pressing reason to rush a mission forward. The 11,000 year orbital period is only an issue if you limit us to current-day technology. In another century or two we'll probably be able to get there in a couple years at most.

But ... I don't wanna wait five years!

If it's real, I hope they name it Persephone (after the tenth planet in Arther C. Clarke's novels).

We'll probably start with chemical, then switch to NERVA once it's perfected.

I like to think they made it look like Map View on purpose.

Missed that part.

If SpaceX can recover all three cores, a Heavy might be the cheaper option.