"First hop" in a Communications Network

[MetricKerbalist]

Hi KSP colleagues,

I have three spacecraft in a Munar orbit.  I am in the Tracking Station, and at this moment, all three satellites can communicate with Kerbin.  When I cycle through the CommNet Visualization options, I see the following:

• None (obvious meaning)
• First Hop (one line)
• Path (the same one line, as near as I can tell)
• Vessel Links (and here I see several lines going from Kerbin to any particular spacecraft -- so I guess that each one of those lines on Kerbin indicates a tracking post to a craft)
• Network (where I see several lines going to all craft)

If I may, could someone kindly answer these two questions:  What does First Hop mean, and how does it differ from Path?

I looked at the KSP wiki, but I cannot find the answer to my questions.

Thank you for your consideration.

Stanley

[OrdinaryKerman]

First Hop refers to your signal to the 'thing' your craft is directly connected to (can be DSN stations on Kerbin, or some relay satellite), while 'Path' is every 'hop' to connect to Kerbin. If you're connected directly to a DSN station on Kerbin, then your first hop is the whole path. If your only connection to Kerbin is through relay satellites, then Path will show every link between you and Kerbin while First Hop only shows your immediate connection to that relay satellite. I hope that explains it well enough.

[MetricKerbalist]

Thank you, @OrdinaryKerman.  That explains it nicely.  However, I need to ask, what does "DSN" mean?  I cannot find that in the KSP wiki.  It must be something like Direct Satellite [then what]?

[OrdinaryKerman]

44 minutes ago, MetricKerbalist said:

Thank you, @OrdinaryKerman.  That explains it nicely.  However, I need to ask, what does "DSN" mean?  I cannot find that in the KSP wiki.  It must be something like Direct Satellite [then what]?

Deep Space Network, Kerbin's ground station network for communicating with space probes. When directly connected to a DSN station, you can see what station you're connected to in Map View's info tab

Quote

(station names include "Baikerbanur" (easter egg of sorts, there you can find the pre-alpha version of the Kerbal Space Center), "Crater Rim" (eastern rim edge of the big crater on Kerbin), "North Station One", "Mesa South", "Nye Island", "KSC" (Space Center's Tracking Station), and also some other things I don't remember. You can find them and other easter eggs using some probe cores' built-in KerbNet scanner (good picks for this include the RC-LO1 (massive field of view), RoveMate (100% anomaly detection), and the Mk2 drone core (OK field of view, nearly 50% anomaly detection)

 

Edited July 3, 2021 by OrdinaryKerman

[MetricKerbalist]

Thanks again, @OrdinaryKerman.

[MetricKerbalist]

11 hours ago, OrdinaryKerman said:

When directly connected to a DSN station, you can see what station you're connected to in Map View's info tab

Hi @OrdinaryKerman,

I am trying to find the information about the station to which I am connected.

First, when you say the Map View's info tab, that means the letter 'I' that I see on the right side of the Map View, is that correct?

So I clicked that, and here is the information that I see:

• Spacecraft's name
• Its classification with some additional information
• Sphere of influence under which I am flying
• Situation
• Flight time
• Velocity
• Altitude
• Craft stats

But I don't see anything pertaining to the station to which I am connected.

Could you please be so kind as to explain what I am doing wrong.

Thank you for your consideration.

Stanley

[Blaarkies]

2 hours ago, MetricKerbalist said:

Hi @OrdinaryKerman,

I am trying to find the information about the station to which I am connected.

First, when you say the Map View's info tab, that means the letter 'I' that I see on the right side of the Map View, is that correct?

So I clicked that, and here is the information that I see:

• Spacecraft's name
• Its classification with some additional information
• Sphere of influence under which I am flying
• Situation
• Flight time
• Velocity
• Altitude
• Craft stats

But I don't see anything pertaining to the station to which I am connected.

Could you please be so kind as to explain what I am doing wrong.

Thank you for your consideration.

Stanley

Try to hover the mouse cursor over the signal strength in the top-left portion of the screen (while controlling the craft). When hovering the mouse cursor over it, a tooltip should appear that states which Craft/Station is part of the connection path

[MetricKerbalist]

Thank you, @Blaarkies.  I see it.

[MetricKerbalist]

Hi KSP colleagues,

I would please like to follow up with information in the post above by @OrdinaryKerman.  That post mentions other Kerbin-based tracking stations like Baikerbanur, Crater Rim, North Station One, Mesa South, and Nye Island.

I would like to see the location of those places on Kerbin.  I am sure that you could fly over them in a rover or some kind of aircraft.  Just to get the lay of the land, however, is there some way to view at least their location -- and perhaps zoom in closer -- by some mechanism like Google Earth.  What I am asking, I guess, is this:  Does the stock KSP game have a built-in feature that offers the functionality of Google Earth?

Thank you.

Stanley

[AlpacaMall]

KSP does not have a built-in “map” of relay stations.

The closest thing the game offers is KerbNet. A feature of KerbNet is that some probe cores will offer “anomaly detection”; Kerbin’s relay stations will appear as some of the anomalies detected by KerbNet.

[MetricKerbalist]

Hi @AlpacaMall.

Thank you for the answer.

Stanley

[MetricKerbalist]

Hi @AlpacaMallor anyone else,

OK.  I just loaded a Probodobodyne OKTO2 inside of an Orbital Mammoth MK5, which I downloaded a few days ago from KerbalX.com.  I guess I installed the OKTO2 correctly -- right below the command module, but inside the rocket body.

I have now lifted off from the Kerbin Space Center, and I am in orbit around Kerbin.  I have a good, strong signal to the Communications Network.  At this point, therefore, I should be able to use KerbNet, right?

I would appreciate it very much if some knowledgeable KSP colleague could please tell me what I should do to use KerbNet.

Thank you for your consideration.

Stanley

[Rhomphaia]

Right click the OKTO2 in flight and select Kerbnet Access from the part action window that pops up

[MetricKerbalist]

Hi @Rhomphaia,

Excellent information!  Thank you so much.

Stanley

[Zhetaan]

On 7/2/2021 at 11:06 PM, MetricKerbalist said:

However, I need to ask, what does "DSN" mean?

Others have answered this, but I wanted to mention that the KSP Deep Space Network is named for the real-life DSN, and I have included a link that will take you to a real-time representation of the actual satellites with which the DSN is currently communicating.

[MetricKerbalist]

Hi @Zhetaan,

Wow!  Let me look at this fascinating site in detail.

Thank you.

Stanley