XL Solar panel ?

[Lohan2008]

Does the XL Solar panel serve any real purpose ?

Besides the kool look ??

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

Makes power. For Ion probes

[swiftgates24]

...It's a solar panel. What did you expect it to do? Hop of the craft and put on a laser show?

[KAO]

I found it has an even better use now, reaction wheels. And I mean the reaction wheels that are for massive ships, the 2 meter variant, they're power hungry.

[WafflesToo]

I don't like them for ion probes personally; they have a terrible power/mass ratio. I can get far better TWR and mission DV using the OX-4s, though you have to get creative with piloting sometimes.

[DisarmingBaton5]

It is a large solar panel for ion engines and reaction wheels.

[magnemoe]

I don't like them for ion probes personally; they have a terrible power/mass ratio. I can get far better TWR and mission DV using the OX-4s, though you have to get creative with piloting sometimes.

Use the long version on a row of small struts, they does not shadow each other for some reasons.

All panels here get full power even if they cast shadows on each other, this is also true if you trust straight towards or away from the sun. Note the large panels cast shadow on each other and the xenon and oscar tanks cast shadow. The only reason for the four panels radial on the six at the edge is that the inner part can separate and become an second stage.

Back to the large panels they was probably thought of being used with ion engines but is far more practical for kethane mining and other heavy industry from mod where you need lots of power, weight is not so important on an miner who can extract 100 ton of fuel.

They will become more important then we get stock resources, perhaps even the science parts will use more power. And yes they look cool.

[nhnifong]

There are no real purposes to serve, in game or in life. Insisting that all you do is a means to an end is form of denial of your full imagination.

[SeventhArchitect]

I got fed up with how stupidly weak the ghost engines were, so what I did was modify them. They now produce 120 thrust, create more Xenongas than they use, but still, they require a lot of power.

So, I often use the XL solar panels. In fact, I make small rockets that bring the electric vessel into the second thickest layer of the atmosphere, and I can actually safely open the XL solar panels, without them breaking off. It's quite fun.

[Zeroignite]

My typical use-case for Gigantors is supplying the massive power needs of Kethane mining and conversions. They also look nice on space stations.

[M5000]

I use them because they look good, personally. So it's overkill to have such large panels on a small craft.. Meh. Not like I care. They're beautiful devices in my opinion... Use them on my space capsules all the time. Though, two pairs of 1x6's put in a "V" configuration, I suppose, don't look too bad. But personally, I feel like the 1x6's look a bit out of place on 2.5m space capsules.

I don't know, I honestly just like the looks of them, like big wings... Though I admit that their sweep area to avoid clipping is pretty big.

[WafflesToo]

Use the long version on a row of small struts, they does not shadow each other for some reasons.

All panels here get full power even if they cast shadows on each other, this is also true if you trust straight towards or away from the sun. Note the large panels cast shadow on each other and the xenon and oscar tanks cast shadow. The only reason for the four panels radial on the six at the edge is that the inner part can separate and become an second stage.

Back to the large panels they was probably thought of being used with ion engines but is far more practical for kethane mining and other heavy industry from mod where you need lots of power, weight is not so important on an miner who can extract 100 ton of fuel.

They will become more important then we get stock resources, perhaps even the science parts will use more power. And yes they look cool.

Did that for both my Minmus ion lander challenge and to power a Duna probe bus. I noticed that too but honestly I thought I was just getting lucky with the angles. Perhaps more experimenting is in order.

Ah yes! Powering Kethane miners, I'd forgotten about that. Hmmmmm... I should install that for 21 while I still have the chance shouldn't I?

[loknar]

+1 M5000 they look good. Why do you need another reason?

I have 16 of them on my station

[CosmicX1]

For now they just look good, but we will probably find them more useful when all the power hungry science equipment is added in 0.22!

[Bishop149]

The only time I've actually really needed them is to recharge a solar / ion powered glider carrying 20-30k of electric power.

Can't deploy them in flight though . . .

I also use them on small ion probes, but they may well be very inefficient power / rate.