A Kerbal's Guide to our solar system

[closette]

Concentrations of CO2 higher than around 10% are lethal...

I realize that now, thank you, so I\'ll bring a CO2 scrubbing respirator. And you mean lethal to humans, of course. The Kerbals might love it. They don\'t seem to need much consumable atmosphere in their spacecraft - the pressure suits are to keep their bodies together only I guess.

There are other possible compositions that fit an average molecular weight of 50 - throw in some nitrogen and Xenon, bump up the hexafluoride fraction, ... it would be interesting to hear some other ideas.

[technoguy33]

Assuming Kerbals are somewhat smaller than humans, they probably need less oxygen to survive.

[closette]

Some think of them as plants, which means CO2 goes in and O2 is breathed out. Not sure how that works at the cellular energetics level though.

[wntvcom]

Gentlemen, seeing as there is now a high possibility for Interplanetary exploration, I suggest we start thinking about the engineering challenge this presents. In order to travel the vast distances involved with Interplanetary missions, the vehicle will need a low-thrust, high specific-impulse engine, in addition to facilities that will allow the crew necessary room to carry out their actions, while also maintaining enough storage to house the food and water and fuel.

Wow! I find myself saying that a lot around here. I could not help but think of Dr. Ben Longmeir. He is working right now on the VASIMR plasma engines (this is real life, if you were not sure). His youtube channel is:

http://www.youtube.com/user/benwl/featured

I also have to give props to the OP Those are some great looking planets!

[Satellife]

Wow! I find myself saying that a lot around here. I could not help but think of Dr. Ben Longmeir. He is working right now on the VASIMR plasma engines (this is real life, if you were not sure). His youtube channel is:

http://www.youtube.com/user/benwl/featured

I also have to give props to the OP Those are some great looking planets!

Indeed. Serious forays into the depths of interplanetary space will be no small feat. Vehicles will need to be designed with the utmost precision and planning, accounting for a variety of unexpected scenarios the intrepid Kerbal crew might encounter. Back-up systems must be implemented, an orbital trajectories must be planned so as to allow the crew a safe return in the event of catastrophe.

For extended-duration missions, careful consideration must be taken with the interior living space of the craft itself; even the fearless Jedediah is no doubt susceptible to insanity if confined to the enclosed quarters of the command module for months or even years at a time.

Certainly, we will see structures such as centrifuges implemented into spacecraft design, as to allow further exploration of the solar system, while protecting the health of the crew. Radiation shielding will also be an issue worth looking at; either natural, or the radiation emitted by certain propulsion systems.

[jebbe]

I just discovered this thread, and I love the discussions about physics going on here. One thing closette mentioned got me thinking:

SF₆ doesn\'t just deepen our Kerbals\' voices - they need it for the strong greenhouse effect given their puny sun - which is one reason I prefer it as constituent of the atmosphere over Xenon.

Kerbals do have a puny sun, no doubt, but just how tiny is it really? It\'s probably been done before, but I couldn\'t find it, so did the math: and I arrived at roughly 4*10^26kg. That\'s about the size of our planet Saturn (5.68*10^26kg) - so yes, they would probably need a REALLY strong greenhouse effect. It\'s actually 1.75*10^28, thanks closette!

For those interested, my calculations:

Kerbin orbits its sun in roughly 106 earth days, that\'s a frequency (omega) of 1.1e-7s 6.86e-7s.

The distance of Kerbin to it\'s star ® is about 1.3e10m.

Using m omega^2 r = G m M / r^2 we get a mass of M = 4e26kg 1.75e28kg.

edit: Of course it\'s been done before, and I guess I should\'ve looked over the calculations again before posting...

[closette]

Not quite that small Jebbe.

First you can check what the KSP Wiki says about Kebol http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/~kerbalsp/wiki/index.php?title=Kerbol,

which gives a mass of 1.75 x 10²⁸ kg. This is the same mass used in the KSP Orbit Mechanic Java tool which you can download here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=4707.0.

But not being one to accept authority over experiment, I used slightly more accurate numbers for Kerbin\'s orbital period P and distance r to equate the centripetal acceleration a_c = r (omega)² = 4 pi² r /P² with the gravitational acceleration due to Kerbol = GM/r² to get:

4 pi² r/P² = GM/r² -> GM = 4 pi² r³/P²

With P=106.7 days = 9.2196 x 10⁶ s, and r = 1.3599 x 10¹⁰ m (which seems over-precise, but I got this from KSP Orbit Mechanic), and assuming G has its real-world value 6.673 x 10^-11 metric units, I get

M = 1.751 x 10²⁸ kg or about 0.0088 solar masses, or about 9 Jupiter masses. Barely a star at all!

[jebbe]

Uh, I guess I forgot the factor of (2*pi)^2, shouldn\'t happen... Thanks for pointing it out!

I can\'t find a reference right now, but I think I remember the critical mass for gravity to ignite nuclear fusion was something around 50 Jupiter masses. So with 9 Jupiter masses it\'s close to a star, but still, is it enough?

[mincespy]

I don\'t think HarvesteR will use this because he said there will be 40-50 planets and moons in the Kerbol system...

Just pointing it out.

[thorfinn]

The finaly tally for Nova\'s system would have been similar There\'s 10 objects in the front page post, and he wanted two gas giants with lots of moons and a companion brown dwarf with its own system....

Anyway, whatever Squad does for the system in the end, I hope that they make a big poster like this and sell it in the merch section:

Nerdiest thing I could have in my room by far, but hey, THAT would be a system I can VISIT!

[NovaSilisko]

I don\'t think HarvesteR will use this because he said there will be 40-50 planets and moons in the Kerbol system...

Just pointing it out.

and moons

The moons would very likely take up the vast majority of solar system bodies y\'know =p

[Kryten]

The moons would very likely take up the vast majority of solar system bodies y\'know =p

Consider our solar system, for example. 8 planets, 180 moons.

[Spearka]

umm, where is the desc of Meander?

[Lazurkri]

Consider our solar system, for example. 8 planets, 180 moons.

And a buttload of asteroidal debris!

[technoguy33]

The solar system has at least 11 planets, darn it!

[closette]

No it doesn\'t, darn it! At least not by the currently adopted definition of a planet, which excludes Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Ganymede, etc.

[stefan1114ever]

No it doesn\'t, darn it! At least not by the currently adopted definition of a planet, which excludes Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Ganymede, etc.

Yes it is, darn it! Pluto is the 9th

Planet X the 10 th

And some people say there is a huge object

Outside the kuiper belt that is twice as big as jupiter

So that are 11 planets! 8)

[NovaSilisko]

I say eight planets, therefore for the purposes of this thread, it is eight planets. ;P

[technoguy33]

Curse you! If it\'s big enough to squash itself into a hear perfect sphere and orbits the sun and not anything else, IT\'S A PLANET!

[NovaSilisko]

[Cepheus]

As soon as we get persistance, this is the first thing Im gonna do.

[thorfinn]

You took out Tiberius? I liked the idea of one more inner planet than our system...

Btw, I love 'Juniper', because of an old Italian comic book I loved

(Could you have a 'Korinna' somewhere also? )

[Spearka]

you forgot Tiberius

[NovaSilisko]

you forgot Tiberius

I am aware. I\'m going to do some reorganizing of the inner system. Tiberius is now a moon of Juniper.

Eventually, I\'ll make a version of this for Space Engine. I hope.

[icefire]

Is that system just a render or orbiter with Videnie?