Density of Laythe's Oceans

[MaxL_1023]

Hello,

I am using the New Horizons mod, and sent a mission to Laythe's oceans. Laythe appears to be the same body in stock, just moved to its own orbit and with a moon added. Either way, my probe with one full small ore tank, an Octo core and some science instruments sank at over 100m/s, which I did not think was possible in water for something with realistic density. Even with the ore tank empty, it sunk at similar speeds. 

What is the density of Laythe's oceans? Are they modeled as water or air? If their density is something like 0.2g/cm^3 than I could understand the dynamics (liquid hydrocarbons?) but if it is supposed to be water then something is off. Maybe the New Horizons mod changes it around?

Thanks,

Max

[Geschosskopf]

Many have noticed that Laythe's "water" density is less than Kerbin's.  This has to be a property of the "water" itself because buoyancy is unaffected by differences in local gravity.  There are many opinions and suppositions on why this should be but most boil down to Kerbin's oceans, being on a life-bearing planet, are saltier than barren Laythe's.

Squad has stated that the new buoyancy rules in 1.0.5 allow varying oceanic density and apparently they have used this feature.  So the fact that things don't float as well on Laythe is pretty much a given and accepted thing these days.

And I put "water" in quotes because, given the insane density of Kerbin and the other features of the Kerbol system, there can be no common elements on the periodic tables of Kerbals and humans.

[Snark]

Yes, Laythe's ocean is less dense than Kerbin's, but only slightly, not dramatically so-- all that'll happen is that your ship sinks a bit lower in the water.  Certainly it should be impossible to fall through it at 100 m/s.

What version of Kopernicus are you running?  When 1.0.5 came out, it broke Kopernicus-- it caused a bug where all planets (including Kerbin!) have oceans that act as if they're not even there.  A few days later, the author came out with a new Kopernicus version that fixed the problem.

Could it be that you're running the old Kopernicus?

Edited January 3, 2016 by Snark

[MaxL_1023]

I am using 1:beta-06-3 from the CKAN library with KSP 1.05. My craft float fine on Kerbin, so I don't think this is the issue. I had a heatshield still attached to the top of the probe - when I hit Laythe's ocean I "bounced" off the surface with the splashdown sound repeating. When I decoupled it, I sunk as if I was in free fall. This occurred with a full ore tank attached, an empty ore tank attached and a naked octo core (octo I, not octo II). 
 

[Snark]

36 minutes ago, MaxL_1023 said:

I am using 1:beta-06-3 from the CKAN library with KSP 1.05. My craft float fine on Kerbin, so I don't think this is the issue. I had a heatshield still attached to the top of the probe - when I hit Laythe's ocean I "bounced" off the surface with the splashdown sound repeating. When I decoupled it, I sunk as if I was in free fall. This occurred with a full ore tank attached, an empty ore tank attached and a naked octo core (octo I, not octo II). 
 

Okay, that's weird.  Clearly seems like some kind of bug; the question is, is it a bug in Kopernicus, or in KSP itself?

If you take the problematic ship and float it on Kerbin, and do the bit with decoupling the heatshield, is it okay?  Or does it do the same thing?  (Would help isolate whether this is a Laythe-specific issue, or a general bug involving something about your craft).

Another interesting thing to try would be to put your craft on Laythe in a plain-vanilla install without Kopernicus, see what happens then.

My guess is that the most likely case is that it's some issue with Kopernicus.  If you can isolate it (e.g. "does it when Kopernicus is present, but not when it's not", suggest posting to the Kopernicus thread about it-- the author is pretty responsive to bugs.