Communications network

[rpayne88]

So I've been looking at remote tech for a while now. Well, actually, I've installed and deleted it a few times. Does any one have any suggestions on how to quickly set up a comm network around Kerbin. If so, what kinds of orbits, altitudes, eccentricity, ect. (just an idea, no exact values needed) do you use? Also, what do your satellites usually look like when they are launched?

All my attempts at setting up a relay network have wound up with me wasting 3+ hours, rage quitting KSP, and purging it from my computer. Maybe I'm doing something wrong and should have asked for suggestions first. Any way, I still think it is a good mod that introduces some realism into KSP.

[Kimberly]

The simplest method is to have three satellites evenly spaced in an equatorial orbit around Kerbin. Provided they use the right antennae, this will give you coverage of the whole planet except the poles. Their altitude needs to be high enough so that they have a line of sight to each other; people often like to put them into a geostationary orbit, at 2868.75km, but this is not really necessary.

You can use four satellites to allow for a little drift without creating gaps in coverage. If you want, you can add satellites into other orbits to give coverage to the poles, and there's even a wacky arrangement that allows you to cover the entire planet with just four satellites, but you'll probably want to stick to the simple stuff for now. The satellites don't look like anything in particular; give them an antenna, a probe core with RemoteTech functionality (which may include all probe cores or just the mod parts, depending on whether you downloaded the compatibility patch), a power source and a battery, and you're good to go.

[Crater]

Personally, my first (few) attempts at this failed because I was trying to launch unmanned probes to be the sats, and they all went out of comms range before I could stabilize the orbit. There are a choice of options for fixing this.

You can either use a manned vehicle to take up and deploy the sats - stick it in an eliptical orbit, drop one at each AP and circularize it. Next time you hit AP, you'll be well around the orbit compared to the previous one.

Or you can ignore the gravity turn - shoot straight up, aim for keostationary orbit, and circularize there. I'll mean that you have much greater downrange coverage for your second (and further) sat(s).

As Kimberly said, 3 or 4 fairly evenly spaced in a high orbit will cover everything but the poles. Even then, the poles are only missed at ground level or low altitude, so you should be okay.

Make sure you put enough dishes on your sats to target all the missions (or planets) that you're interested in, and remember that all the sats in your initial Kerbal constellation need to have the same set of targetting for their dishes (e.g. dish 1 points at Duna on all of them), since any one of them may be the one that is on the correct side of the planet at any given time.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Crater

[dave4002000]

My first satellite is always a manned mission and goes directly above KSC in a geo-synch orbit. I then put another 3 up and space them out 90 degrees apart. If you are accurate enough with your orbits, you don't need to use any dishes for sat-sat communication. The dipole (omnidirectional) antennas have a range of 5Mm and with a 4 satellite setup in geo-synch orbits, the range between them is around 4.7Mm. That way, i have continuous coverage around Kerbin and I only need to worry about pointing the dishes at craft that are leaving Kerbin orbit.

Another tip i'll give you (that i learned the hard way), is to have a docking port available on your satellites just in case you ever want to expand and add more dishes to it.

[Kimberly]

Another tip i'll give you (that i learned the hard way), is to have a docking port available on your satellites just in case you ever want to expand and add more dishes to it.

Why not just put up a whole new craft, though? It's less effort than docking, surely, and it makes no difference in terms of functionality. I like having separate relay satellites for each planet.

[dave4002000]

That is very true. You can do that, as well. Maybe that's part of my OCD kicking in and telling me that i'm only supposed to have 4 equally spaced satellites in orbit at any given time..haha

[Kimberly]

That is very true. You can do that, as well. Maybe that's part of my OCD kicking in and telling me that i'm only supposed to have 4 equally spaced satellites in orbit at any given time..haha

I am currently planning to have four satellites as a ground support system, three satellites for orbital tracking and data relay, 6 GPS orbits with 4 satellites each, six weather satellites, and 36 orbits with 6 satellites each for a high-speed communication network.

[rhoark]

In the past I've bootstrapped deployment with manned flights or did an L shaped burn as described above. I'm taking a break from RT now until RemoteTech 2 is ready, but when it is I'll start with a flower petal arrangement - hit an apoapsis around 1Mm and raise periapsis just above the minimum before going out of contact. That way the sats spend most of their time "hovering" near apoapsis. Three or four of those can make a near-Kerbin mesh, then I'll have 2 keosync dish hubs antipodally for trans-Munar links.

[dave4002000]

I am currently planning to have four satellites as a ground support system, three satellites for orbital tracking and data relay, 6 GPS orbits with 4 satellites each, six weather satellites, and 36 orbits with 6 satellites each for a high-speed communication network.

I'm at a loss for words! Well, maybe i can still think of two: Kessler Syndrome, haha

[MrKicker]

What I would do is put 3-4 satilights in a polar orbit with evenly spaced headings. Then put a satilight in a geostationary orbit ontop of ksc to transmit to those satiligths. Bam, a network that will transmit in anny horisontal directions. (Aslong as its within range.)

[Helix935]

i usually just send up a manned mission that would carry 4 probes at once that separate from the main craft when i achieve an orbit and then splash down afterwards

Edit: although i should mention that actually creating a perfectly spaced orbit for the 4 probes is more difficult to achieve with this method

Edited August 8, 2013 by Helix935

[esinohio]

I really learned a lot from the wiki page for Kerbal Space Program. It's here in the tutorials section. On the page you can find some simple relay configurations that work rather well and they also have a few basic Comm satellites you could mimic. Or if getting the exact orbital positioning is proving difficult you can use how they setup their network as a guide and just add a few more satellites to cover misplaced positioning. I know for me I had some issues getting that placement just right for the minimalist approach to work by doing it with the least amount of equipment. It can be done though! Once ya get this under your belt you should give that GPS mod a try. Getting those orbits setup can be fun as well since there is so many! It also looks very impressive on the map screen.

[rpayne88]

i usually just send up a manned mission that would carry 4 probes at once that separate from the main craft when i achieve an orbit and then splash down afterwards

Edit: although i should mention that actually creating a perfectly spaced orbit for the 4 probes is more difficult to achieve with this method

I just did the same with four pre-made remote tech satellites space approximately 90 degrees apart. They are currently is a 1Mm circular orbit with their eccentricities being less than 0.000001 (I think I put the right number of zeros.)

Thanks for the help; I'm currently working on getting polar orbiting satellites up.

[Helix935]

i already use the figaro gps mod and it was the reason why i tried to deploy four probes at once and was left with a very crowded orbit

mods used: Emsp, figaro, kosmo, and B9

well not very crowded anyway but at least there is no debris because i already destroyed it all

Edited August 9, 2013 by Helix935

[espm400]

I don't know if anyone does this, but although I do usually setup some of my network in KSO, my first step is usually just tossing about four of those MicroSats that are included with RT up at about an inclined 400km LKO. The reasoning behind this is that my KSO comsats tend to be fairly large (usually have a minimum of six 50 Gm dishes), and I can only accommodate one per launch, whereas I can put four to eight of the MicroSats up with a fairly small rocket. Doing it this way I have a functional network that will serve Kerbin for any satellites that I launch around her (Kethane scanners and ISA MapSat...um...mapping satellites...). With this method, you won't be sending any probes to the Mun, but after one launch, you'll never have to worry about blackouts with any future satellites that you launch.

Edited August 10, 2013 by espm400
Forgot to add "K"

[Helix935]

hey has anyone had the idea of as a way to speed up kethane mapping by using Kas (after changing the cable length) to link for sensors to one craft so that it would cover a larger area because i'm testing it and if it works i will inform all of you

picture of testing craft

mods used; KAS, Emsp, Kethane, RLA MMRTG, and KSPX

[dave4002000]

If you are thinking about just extending the cables out to get the scanners farther apart, that won't work. The scanners all scan from the CoM of the ship they are attached to. It doesn't matter how far apart they are.

The fastest way is to stuff as many scanners as you can fit on one craft then pack a bunch of batteries, RTG's and solar panels to power them all continuously then run at 10,000x time warp.

[Helix935]

yeah i tried it and all it really did was just drain power and also I don't scan at 10,000x time warp because it always leaves spots without data

overall mission unsuccessful but it was a good try

[dave4002000]

also I don't scan at 10,000x time warp because it always leaves spots without data

That just means you need more scanners