buoyancy on Laythe ?

[Maukse]

Greetings fellow Kerbogineer and Kerbonauts,

First, merry christmas to all of you !

 

I have designed a seaplane - SSTO, based on a kerbin seaplane that met my expectations.

During test and trials on Kerbin's water, everything went as expected :

Front floaters have enough "clearance" to allow my boat out of the cargo bay.

Then, while doing a few test on Laythe water (HyperEdit), found out that :

As you can see, the plane now is much lower, despite having exactly the same fuel mass.
As far as I understand, on Laythe, this craft should weight roughly 80% of its weight on Kerbin. Water displaced by floaters is the same in volume, and 80% in weight.

So, it should have the same waterline, excepted if water on Laythe has a different density as water on Kerbin !!!

Question :

- Is Laythe Ocean made of lighter, freshwater ?
- Is KSP buoyancy model taking part of the temperature ?
- Why does the water looks clear on Kerbin, and not on Laythe ?
 

My possible answers are :

- I have a flaw in my above-stated assumption
- Laythe water properties was not yet set as water on Kerbin
- Laythe water properties differ from Kerbin's one intentionally
 

What do you think ?

[Snark]

When Squad announced the improvements to water dynamics in 1.0.5, they specifically mentioned that the new physics allows the oceans on different planets to have different densities.

So yes, it's a deliberate design choice on Squad's part. What you've just established is that Laythe's ocean is less dense than Kerbin's.

Congratulations, you thought you were just building a seaplane, and ended up making a hydrometer! There, you just did science. Pity it's not worth any points...

Edited December 25, 2015 by Snark

[Zhetaan]

Take a thermometer and you will see that Laythe's oceans tend to go down to 250 K at the poles, averaging at about 270 K across the planet--it's too cold for freshwater, and there should be icebergs and polar caps in such a situation anyway.

High amounts of salt would prevent freezing, and some of the science information indicates there there is a lot of salt present, but it would increase the density of the oceans, causing your craft to float higher, not lower.  Also, even salt may not be able to depress the freezing point enough in the polar regions to prevent the formation of ice caps.

I cannot discount the presence of salt, but there is clearly something else going on.  One possibility that would both prevent freezing and lower the oceanic density is alcohol.  Clouds of alcohol have been found in space, but they are generally very large and associated with stellar formation.  I do not know what process would cause Laythe to accumulate so much of it,  but then again, it is also unknown what would cause Laythe to accumulate an oxygen atmosphere in the absence of life.

When one considers that lethe is Greek for oblivion and forgetfulness and refers also to an underworld river that causes the same in those who drink of it, there's something rather poetic in the idea that a similar name could be used for a moon literally covered in booze.  Maybe Laythe's atmosphere is actually perfectly safe to breathe, and any statements to the contrary are propaganda pieces from Kerbin's teetotalers and Anti-Saloon League.

[Maukse]

 

21 minutes ago, Zhetaan said:

Take a thermometer and you will see that Laythe's oceans tend to go down to 250 K at the poles, averaging at about 270 K across the planet--it's too cold for freshwater, and there should be icebergs and polar caps in such a situation anyway.

High amounts of salt would prevent freezing, and some of the science information indicates there there is a lot of salt present, but it would increase the density of the oceans, causing your craft to float higher, not lower.  Also, even salt may not be able to depress the freezing point enough in the polar regions to prevent the formation of ice caps.

I cannot discount the presence of salt, but there is clearly something else going on.  One possibility that would both prevent freezing and lower the oceanic density is alcohol.  Clouds of alcohol have been found in space, but they are generally very large and associated with stellar formation.  I do not know what process would cause Laythe to accumulate so much of it,  but then again, it is also unknown what would cause Laythe to accumulate an oxygen atmosphere in the absence of life.

When one considers that lethe is Greek for oblivion and forgetfulness and refers also to an underworld river that causes the same in those who drink of it, there's something rather poetic in the idea that a similar name could be used for a moon literally covered in booze.  Maybe Laythe's atmosphere is actually perfectly safe to breathe, and any statements to the contrary are propaganda pieces from Kerbin's teetotalers and Anti-Saloon League.

So we could have a layer of liquid Alcohol on Laythe oceans, which should, of course, come with quiet a lot of alcoholic vapour. Interesting hypothesis !

Well, I just have to say, it is a bit annoying that my seaplane can not operate on Laythe but it opens the door for easy submarines exploration then ! I hope there are things to see !!!
But unfortunately, I don't think that a mkII cargo bay can hold a nice submarine design.

[KerikBalm]

Who says it cannot operate? those wings will lift themselves. Personally, I prefer to use hydroplanes... similar to this (i've since moved the hydrofoils on the pontoons even lower)

 

[Maukse]

So I made a nice submarine that fits in a cargo bay ! :-)

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/128563-meet-the-hag-edit-now-with-pocket-submarine-meet-the-hiper/