[WIP] VPL Technologies – ViComm

[VaPaL]

VPL Technologies – ViComm

 

Ø About:

The idea behind this mod is to create a more complex and varied communication and relay network with addition to new types of antennas and connections. It adds 5 high gain antennas (HGA), 4 medium gain antenna (MGA) and 5 low gain antennas (LGA). The inspiration for creating this mod came from the spaceflight101’s “One Week to Jupiter – NASA’s Juno Spacecraft en-route to Gas Giant after five-year Journey” article more specific from this passage:

“Setting up for JOI, Juno will switch to its Medium Gain Antenna that has a larger boresight and enables the vehicle to communicate with Earth at greater off-axis angles.  Two hours before the maneuver, Juno will begin sending tones – a very basic form of communication as the spacecraft selects from 256 available semaphores, either sending heartbeat tones to signal it is still alive and doing well or transmitting tones corresponding to specific mission events or statuses. [...]

Because the Earth moves out of the Medium-Gain Antenna boresight, Juno has to switch to even lower bitrate comms through the Low Gain Antennas at TIG-37 minutes.”

 

Ø Features:

o  Auto-reconnect attempt;

o  2-way communication;

o  Line-of-sight and physical antenna direction taken into account;

o  Different gain antennas (high, medium and low) with different function and performance;

o  Integration with MechJeb by sarbian, Kerbal Engineering Redux by cybutek, USI-LS & USI MKS by RoverDude and Outer Planes Mod by CaptRobau (kOS in the future, maybe).

o  User GUI to personalize your experience per save.

 

Ø Auto reconnect attempt:

Unless you are out of power, your spacecraft will try to reestablish connection. To do so it will follow this sequence (the flowchart still needs some more refining):

Spoiler

 

Ø 2-way communication:

The range of both antennas (yours and relays) are take into account, if both are in range of each other the communication is optimal and it’s possible to send and receive data. If only one is in range of another communication is deprived and the one without range can’t send data but still able to receive. If your ship can send but not receive data, it will be unable to receive any inputs, it will do all preprogramed burns and you will have access to all of your ships information. If your ship can receive but not sent data, you will be able to control, do experiments and transmit them, but you won’t have access to any of your ship information (remaining fuel/dV, electric charge, etc) via stock, MechJeb or Kerbal Engineering Redux. If are using USI-LS or USI-MKS and your base/station loses communication, their status and the status of the kerbals that are there will stop updating and become black in the USI GUI.

 

Ø Line of sight and antenna direction:

The antenna must be physically point towards the target to establish a communication link and without any obstruction between them (including parts of the ship). If an antenna is on a gimbal unit part (studying possibility) it will auto rotate to keep looking at target, similar to solar panels. Otherwise, it will try to reconnect (see above). Note that for surface operations, keeping line of sight (LoS) is more of challenge than range due to terrain relief and body curvature.

 

Ø Gain:

HGAs have a narrower beam width, but are able to transmit and receive more information, MGAs have a wider beam width, but transmit and receive less information and LGAs are omnidirectional, but transmit and receive only basic information. This means that the communication with the spacecraft gets more limited the lower the gain of your antenna. So any inputs made via a lower gain antenna will be less precise, burns will start or end slightly delayed or anticipated, throttle will be a little off and positioning the spacecraft will be inaccurate. For science transmission the lower gain the less data you can transmit, the game will still see that experiment as done, so the its value will be lower next time you do it, but the amount science you’ll receive will be smaller. The spacecraft status via MJ or KER as well as base/station/kerbal status via USI will have lower refresh rates the lower the antenna gain. The overall gain only takes into account the spacecraft and the first relay antennas, this is to avoid excessive complications with CommSat constellations .

 

Ø Parts:

Spoiler

         HGAs

 

   o  [insert_name_hga5] (for Outer Planets Mod):

§  Diameter: 5 [m]

§  Frequency: 32500 and 2750 (Ka/X band) [MHz]

§  Gain: 55,6 and 34,1 (Ka/X band) [dBd]

§  Type: deployable off-axis feed mesh dish

§  Range: 700 [Gm] (Plock all times)

§  Power consumption: XYZ and xyz (Ka/X band) [charge/s]

§  Cone angle: 0,129 and 1,527 (Ka/X band) [°]

§  Transmission speed: X Mit/s

§  Transmission efficiency: 100%

§  Damageable: Yes, high g force and dynamic pressure

§  Real life inspiration: MUOS satellites

 

o  [insert_name_hga3-75]:

§  Diameter: 3,75 [m]

§  Frequency: 32500 and 2750 (Ka/X band) [MHz]

§  Gain: 56,1 and 34,6 (Ka/X band) [dBd]

§  Type: Cassegrain

§  Range: 130 [Gm] (Eeloo all times)

§  Power consumption: XYZ and xyz (Ka/X band) [charge/s]

§  Cone angle: 0,185 and 2,182 (Ka/X band) [°]

§  Transmission speed: X Mit/s

§  Transmission efficiency: 100%

§  Damageable: Yes, dynamic pressure

§  Real life inspiration: Cassini HGA

 

o  [insert_name_hga2-5m]:

§  Diameter: 2,5 [m]

§  Frequency: 32500 and 2750 (Ka/X band) [MHz]

§  Gain: 54,0 and 32,6 (Ka/X band) [dBd]

§  Type: Gregorian

§  Range: 35 [Gm] (Duna all times)

§  Power consumption: XYZ and xyz (Ka/X band) [charge/s]

§  Cone angle: 0,295 and 3,491 (Ka/X band) [°]

§  Transmission speed: X Mit/s

§  Transmission efficiency: 100%

§  Damageable: Yes, dynamic pressure

§  Real life inspiration: Juno HGA

 

o  [insert_name_hga1-25m]:

§  Diameter: 1,25 [m]

§  Frequency: 32500 and 2750 (Ka/X band) [MHz]

§  Gain: 50,0 and 28,5 (Ka/X band) [dBd]

§  Type: axil feed

§  Range: 85 [Mm] (KSOI)

§  Power consumption: XYZ and xyz (Ka/X band) [charge/s]

§  Cone angle: 0,665 and 7,855 (Ka/X band) [°]

§  Transmission speed: X Mit/s

§  Transmission efficiency: 100%

§  Damageable: Yes, dynamic pressure

§  Real life inspiration: EchoStar - 18

 

o  [insert_name_hga0-625m]:

§  Diameter: 0,625 [m]

§  Frequency: 32500 and 2750 (Ka/X band) [MHz]

§  Gain: 45,3 and 23,9 (Ka/X band) [dBd]

§  Type: axil feed grid antenna

§  Range: 1 [Mm]

§  Power consumption: XYZ and xyz (Ka/X band) [charge/s]

§  Cone angle: 1,329 and 15,709 (Ka/X band) [°]

§  Transmission speed: X Mit/s

§  Transmission efficiency: 100%

§  Damageable: Yes, dynamic pressure

§  Real life inspiration: generic axil feed grid antenna

 

MGAs

 

o  [insert_name_mgaouter]:

§  Frequency: 6500 (X band) [MHz]

§  Gain: 22,9 [dBd]

§  Type: axial feed (diameter = 0,41m)

§  Range: 130 [Gm]

§  Power consumption: XYZ [charge/s]

§  Cone angle: 8,443 [°]

§  Transmission speed: X Mit/s

§  Transmission power consumption: X charge/s

§  Transmission efficiency: 50%

§  Damageable: Yes, dynamic pressure

§  Real life inspiration: New Horizons MGA

 

o  [insert_name_mgainner]

§  Frequency: 8400 (X band) [MHz]

§  Gain: 20 [dBd]

§  Type: RF conical horn

§  Range: 35 [Gm]

§  Power consumption: XYZ [charge/s]

§  Cone angle: 10 [°]

§  Transmission speed: X Mit/s

§  Transmission power consumption: X charge/s

§  Transmission efficiency: 50%

§  Damageable: Yes, dynamic pressure

§  Real life inspiration: Juno MGA

 

o  [insert_name_mgaksoi]

§  Frequency: XXXX [MHz]

§  Gain: XX [dBd]

§  Type:

§  Range: 85 [Mm]

§  Power consumption: XYZ [charge/s]

§  Cone angle: 45 [°]

§  Transmission speed: X Mit/s

§  Transmission power consumption: X charge/s

§  Transmission efficiency: 50%

§  Damageable: Yes, dynamic pressure

§  Real life inspiration: none yet

 

o  [insert_name_mgasurface]

§  Frequency: 1500 (L band) [MHz]

§  Gain: 15 [dBd]

§  Type: corner

§  Range: 1 [Mm]

§  Power consumption: XYZ [charge/s]

§  Cone angle: 90 [°]

§  Transmission speed: X Mit/s

§  Transmission power consumption: X charge/s

§  Transmission efficiency: 50%

§  Damageable: Yes, dynamic pressure

§  Real life inspiration: generic corner antenna

 

LGAs coming later.

 

       Not final models yet, specially the dish, working on a new version already.

 

Ø Thanks:

o  Fábio Cury (a frined): Naming the mod and it’s parts (soon ^TM).

o  cxg2827: Showing how to import models from SolidWorks to Blender and tips on modeling;

o  blu3wolf: Questioning and helping with the mechanics;

o  sarbian: Creating MechJeb;

o  RoverDude: Creating all USI mods and giving tips during his streams;

o  CaptRobau: Creating Outer Planets Mod;

o  cybutek: Creating Kerbal Engineering Redux.

 

 

OBS: Not sure if it is possible to do all of that and how hard is will be (probably a LOT), but I will keep making adjustments here and there as I go along.  It is a very crude idea, let’s see where it leads to. Also, it will be a while until the release, it is my first mod and I learning everything (C#, Blender, Gimp and Unity). I have some models done (without textures) but they are too high poly, but I will release the parts (as a part pack) as soon as the get finished.

Edited July 12, 2016 by VaPaL

[Nansuchao]

This seems very promising as an alternative to Remotetech or Antenna Range. I'm very curious to see what will happen. Good luck for this beautiful challenge!

[VaPaL]

@Nansuchao Thanks  

[CobaltWolf]

Awesome to see that this is still happening! Feel free to take any relevant antennas from BDB if it saves you some work.

[123nick]

it sounds neat. how will this compare too remote tech? like, where does it differ and where is it similiar? it seems like a more stricter, hardcore version of RT.

[VaPaL]

@CobaltWolf Thanks! Will take a pick at night  

@123nick Basically the similarities are the need to have connection, range and directional/omni antennas. The differences are that antennas have gain, this gives different parameters like cone angle for MGAs are wider than for HGAs, also HGA are bassically how every antenna works on RT, but MGAs and LGAs have lower transmission efficiency, precision and lower telemetry (MJ and KER). And there's the need to physically point your antenna to the target (relay/Kerbin).

[123nick]

1 minute ago, VaPaL said:

@CobaltWolf Thanks! Will take a pick at night  

@123nick Basically the similarities are the need to have connection, range and directional/omni antennas. The differences are that antennas have gain, this gives different parameters like cone angle for MGAs are wider than for HGAs, also HGA are bassically how every antenna works on RT, but MGAs and LGAs have lower transmission efficiency, precision and lower telemetry (MJ and KER). And there's the need to physically point your antenna to the target (relay/Kerbin).

woah, physically pointing antennas? now THAT is pretty cool. im excited too see how this mod progresses, especially with how compatible it is with mods that add antennas and probe cores and etc.