Ground Telescope

[KPB14]

Hello folks.

I would like to suggest a new structure to Kerbal Space Center: A ground telescope. It could be used to make some space observations and generate some extra science points. It could work similarly to the tracking station observing celestial bodies and help planning future missions.

Best regards.

 

[Rath]

Why?

[Wjolcz]

7 hours ago, Rath said:

Why?

Because there was meant to be one like that since forever anyway.

It shouldnt generate science points though. It would be better for actual celestial body and interstellar observation.

Edited January 12, 2017 by Veeltch

[Keymaster89]

I always felt that there is a lack of information about other planets in KSP... i own KSP for almost 4 year now, and still i went interplanetary only ones or twice on Duna... the lack of infomation (in the game) about other planetoid and the lack of time to experiment myself always restrained me to get further then Minmus.

I mean, create and testing stuff in Kerbin SOI is fair... but the second u leave that bubble u have years of travel, and any error cause millions of losses in your founds account and more important, kerbals lifes.

At least for me, there is just not enough technical documentation on how to face new planets other then the 3 ones that i'm used to... i can tell if a ship can reach LKO do stuff at Mun and come back in one piece by simply looking at it, but outside Kerbin SOI i have no clue.

You can call me lazy, but what i want to say is: i always wanted in this game a building in KSC where i can go, select a planet and have a good documentation of it's enviroment, composition, lore, stuff i must be aware of, border of the atmosphere, it's density and composition, maybe in a clear heigh/density graph, and anomalies discovered, day lenght, revolution lenght, a detailed surface and ore map once i scanned it, and many other information like that.

All the info may not be available from the start... probably u'll have to send missions to them and run experiments to unlock the relative info, but ones you acquire that, you have the clear documentation at KSC, at your disposal for accurate planning. That's why a ground telescope. It collect all the knowledge from the Kerbol system. And no, the tracking station does not do that. The tracking station gives u general info of the planet you're looking at but it's function is to keep track of missions, ship and object in space, not to analyze planets.

Even if i don't agree about the idea of a building generating science i really like the OP suggestion. Sending probe around the system will then have a concrete meaning, beside collect a bunch of common science points...

[Scoutman1121]

I'd love to see it in the game even if it served no purpose other than observation. It's the little things that make a game great. 

[Brofessional]

Technically the level 3 R&D center already has an observatory in it's model.

[diomedea]

If the idea is about an optical telescope, KSC would be the worst place on Kerbin. Very low altitude and close to the sea, also equatorial, therefore thick atmosphere and high humidity.

Much better to install optical telescopes on a mountain plateau, out in a dry area. Thinner atmo and no condensation allows far better resolution with images taken in the visible band. Even more so in UV and X-ray bands.

Radiotelescopes are a different thing, absorption and diffraction at those frequencies by the atmosphere is very low. Still, the farther away from any powerful radio transmitter, the better to minimize interferences. KSC of course holds the most powerful known radio transmitter on Kerbin....

(My idea, telescopes could be made a thing using Kerbal Konstructs add-on to have them in far away locations).

[Cunjo Carl]

On 2/20/2017 at 4:35 AM, diomedea said:

If the idea is about an optical telescope, KSC would be the worst place on Kerbin. Very low altitude and close to the sea, also equatorial, therefore thick atmosphere and high humidity.

Much better to install optical telescopes on a mountain plateau, out in a dry area. Thinner atmo and no condensation allows far better resolution with images taken in the visible band. Even more so in UV and X-ray bands.

Radiotelescopes are a different thing, absorption and diffraction at those frequencies by the atmosphere is very low. Still, the farther away from any powerful radio transmitter, the better to minimize interferences. KSC of course holds the most powerful known radio transmitter on Kerbin....

(My idea, telescopes could be made a thing using Kerbal Konstructs add-on to have them in far away locations).

 

<Being silly> Fortunately Kerbin's atmosphere is paper thin, crystal clear and free of the small thermal/pressure variations that cause mischief for optical telescope groundstations so we're good to go! </Being silly> Realism aside, I think it would be pretty cool to have a ground telescope. Seeing the planets in the KSPedia is neat, but seeing in them in a telescope, just dangling in the night sky would be a real treat. "Some day I'll have a Kerbal walk on that", style thing. It would need its own UI and calls to load up the planets/textures, and the Kerbin night sky would need a huge resolution boost, so I suspect the idea's just pie in the sky. Still, it sounds neat.

[juanml82]

On 12/1/2017 at 7:23 AM, Keymaster89 said:

I always felt that there is a lack of information about other planets in KSP... i own KSP for almost 4 year now, and still i went interplanetary only ones or twice on Duna... the lack of infomation (in the game) about other planetoid and the lack of time to experiment myself always restrained me to get further then Minmus.

I mean, create and testing stuff in Kerbin SOI is fair... but the second u leave that bubble u have years of travel, and any error cause millions of losses in your founds account and more important, kerbals lifes.

At least for me, there is just not enough technical documentation on how to face new planets other then the 3 ones that i'm used to... i can tell if a ship can reach LKO do stuff at Mun and come back in one piece by simply looking at it, but outside Kerbin SOI i have no clue.

You can call me lazy, but what i want to say is: i always wanted in this game a building in KSC where i can go, select a planet and have a good documentation of it's enviroment, composition, lore, stuff i must be aware of, border of the atmosphere, it's density and composition, maybe in a clear heigh/density graph, and anomalies discovered, day lenght, revolution lenght, a detailed surface and ore map once i scanned it, and many other information like that.

All the info may not be available from the start... probably u'll have to send missions to them and run experiments to unlock the relative info, but ones you acquire that, you have the clear documentation at KSC, at your disposal for accurate planning. That's why a ground telescope. It collect all the knowledge from the Kerbol system. And no, the tracking station does not do that. The tracking station gives u general info of the planet you're looking at but it's function is to keep track of missions, ship and object in space, not to analyze planets.

Even if i don't agree about the idea of a building generating science i really like the OP suggestion. Sending probe around the system will then have a concrete meaning, beside collect a bunch of common science points...

Part of that stuff is available in the tracking station. All of it is in the wiki (http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Main_Page ) and somewhere, someone added the planets to the KSPedia with all that information as well