Gilly gravity fluctuations found.

[iVG]

Hi there! Just wanted to inform anyone that I just entered Gilly orbit. Prior to encounter my projected orbit became lumpy (zig-zaggy), also the material bay showed something like 'lumpy gravity field'. Couldn't take screenshot though! Also as I detached my last booster stage in Gilly orbit, it started to drift away as expected, but then came back to my probe lander, then started drifting again! Never seen that before in KSP.

I don't know how to call this, Easter egg is kinda too much but definitely worth checking out! Hope someone else confirms this soon!

P.S. The Negative graviolli detector also showed something about it's gravity.

[thestookem]

Why couldn't you take a screenshot?

[iVG]

I was too close to SOI transition, was thinking 'What the..' and I was already in Gilly SOI. Just found another interesting fact - my lander starts spinning without any input, no SAS enabled. Soo cool

[kookoo_gr]

F1 for screen shot. From your writings it is a common issue of the game that comes from the game's computations for the orbits. If you check the "Show your awesome KSP pictures thread" there are a few really wonky orbits at the other planets (i believe Duna, Jool and Mun). I myself had multiple times these wonky orbits you describe one of them was at Laythe and Eve. As for this update maybe the devs decided to add it as a science flavor text

[macegee]

Gee, why spoiler stuff like this?

[lajoswinkler]

Well someone was bound to find it sooner or later.

This is great news.

[Kinglet]

Just as mysterious as the gravity around mohos moholes which pulls any craft close to it into the hole.

[Motokid600]

Well seeing is how this happens in real life ( more or less ) its really cool to see this. Off to Gilly! Never been...

[iVG]

F1 for screen shot. From your writings it is a common issue of the game that comes from the game's computations for the orbits. If you check the "Show your awesome KSP pictures thread" there are a few really wonky orbits at the other planets (i believe Duna, Jool and Mun). I myself had multiple times these wonky orbits you describe one of them was at Laythe and Eve. As for this update maybe the devs decided to add it as a science flavor text

I've been to Duna Mun and Jool and quite a few more places, never encountered such thing. The thing with the orbit was that the projected orbit was drawn in a zig-zag, not the whole orbit bouncing up and down due to floating point error. Also the 'lumpy gravity field' note under the science experiment clearly shows that this was intentional!

Also I've never ever had rotating crafts around planetary bodies, ever.

[thrashing mad]

I had 'zig-zaggy' projected trajectory prior to entering Gilly's sphere of influence few days back, in 0.21.

[iVG]

Hmm... So I guess this isn't new.

[Starwhip]

I think this happens because a) Gilly has a gravitational constant of about 150% that of Kerbin, and has a fluctuating surface, with mountains/valleys. Both of these might influence your orbit.

[Boex]

Err...No. This is completely incorrect. I landed on Gilly about 5 hours ago in 0.22. The crew report actually said something more like "it's a lumpy asteroid, I could probably Jetpack down there".

Your projected orbit wasn't lumpy or zig-zaggy. It's your Conic Draw Mode.

By default it's set to 3, which basically shows the actual path you'll take through space, relative to Eve. Then, once you've entered Gilly SOI, it switches to Conic Draw Mode 1, and shows the path you'll take through space relative to Gilly.

"Also as I detached my last booster stage in Gilly orbit, it started to drift away as expected, but then came back to my probe lander, then started drifting again! Never seen that before in KSP."

If you've never seen that before in KSP, you haven't played it much.

Your orbits were slightly boosted in the Normal and Anti-Normal directions or the Radial-In and Radial-Out directions. As your near the descending/ascending node of the two objects, they come closer together. Like a rendezvous!

KSP doesn't support n-body physics, let alone variations in a body's gravity field. So everyone calm down, it's not an Easter Egg, it's very normal KSP orbital physics.

MYTH. BUSTED.

(Sorry to disappoint... Admittedly this would be cool)

Edited October 17, 2013 by Boex

[iVG]

Err...No. This is completely incorrect. I landed on Gilly about 5 hours ago in 0.22. The crew report actually said something more like "it's a lumpy asteroid, I could probably Jetpack down there".

Your projected orbit wasn't lumpy or zig-zaggy. It's your Conic Draw Mode.

By default it's set to 3, which basically shows the actual path you'll take through space, relative to Eve. Then, once you've entered Gilly SOI, it switches to Conic Draw Mode 1, and shows the path you'll take through space relative to Gilly.

"Also as I detached my last booster stage in Gilly orbit, it started to drift away as expected, but then came back to my probe lander, then started drifting again! Never seen that before in KSP."

If you've never seen that before in KSP, you haven't played it much.

Your orbits were slightly boosted in the Normal and Anti-Normal directions or the Radial-In and Radial-Out directions. As your near the descending/ascending node of the two objects, they come closer together. Like a rendezvous!

KSP doesn't support n-body physics, let alone variations in a body's gravity field. So everyone calm down, it's not an Easter Egg, it's very normal KSP orbital physics.

MYTH. BUSTED.

(Sorry to disappoint... Admittedly this would be cool)

I am aware of two body physics and stuff, and yes, my craft rotated as I let go of controls. My report was (graviolli detector one) it had a lumpy gravitational field and I saw it with my eyes. The orbit was zig-zaggy, nothing I've ever seen, that's why I posted it. MYTH - NOT BUSTED.

P.S Did you have the graviolli detector on board?

[Deejay2000]

I recently orbited Pol (very lumpy moon, much like Gilly) and I had a perfectly round elliptical orbit.

So... Iunno

Regards,

Deejay

[Johnman]

I just went to Gilly compelled by this thread. The only thing I discovered (first time in Gilly for me) is that you don't land on this thing, you dock on it. The vessel wouldn't stick to the ground and I ended up jetpacking Jeb down to the surface to plant a flag.

I did not notice anything strange with its gravity (other than it being negligibly low) or my orbit :/ I would love to see this thing you mention. Think you can reproduce it and post a screenshot?

More !!science!! needs to be done on this.

[Firov]

In the name of science, I hastily dispatched Gravity Probe B to Gilly to get to the bottom of this mystery.

I found that the gravity is quite consistent, albeit low. I didn't run into any gravitational anomalies even though at one point my orbit was a mere 3km above the surface. So, the good news is, it seems the laws of physics aren't changing on us.

As an aside, the transfer windows were way off, and I wasn't willing to wait that long anyway. So instead, I chose to do something I've never done before. Fly a ballistic approach and brute force the whole thing.

It required ~8,500 delta-V, but I was able to get to Eve in just over 20 days. The burn wasn't quite perfect, since the trip was supposed to take only 19 days. Also, the burn took so long that it threw off the ejection angle, requiring me to spend a bit of extra delta-V to compensate.

And naturally, since I'd hit ludicrous speed in getting there that fast (~11,000 m/s at the edge of Eve's SOI), my only option was to aerocapture at an altitude of around 60km. I think at one point I hit around 33g's of deceleration which made a very impressive fireball. Fortunately, those Kerbals really know how to make tough probes.

So that was fun. More than checking Gilly's gravity, this was a test run for future manned missions to see if I can decrease the transit time by flying a ballistic trajectory. It was an unqualified success.

Anyway, there are more pictures of Gravity Probe B's orbit around Gilly and the mission in general at the following link for those interested. They're all going to be the pictures from today.

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198007477860/screenshots/?appid=0&sort=newestfirst&browsefilter=myfiles&view=grid

Edited October 18, 2013 by Firov

[Johnman]

What mods are you using there Firov? Those fairings look sleek!

[Firov]

What mods are you using there Firov? Those fairings look sleek!

Hey Johnman. For any fairing or interstage adapter that you might ever desire, there's really only one option. Procedural Fairings

Why settle for pre-made fairings/interstage adapters when you can make your own?

The rest of the parts are mostly KW Rocketry or stock.

[iVG]

Firov, didn't your probe start spinning around? I got some weird phantom forces.

[Firov]

Firov, didn't your probe start spinning around? I got some weird phantom forces.

I watched Gravity Probe B orbit for awhile, both with and without time compression and I didn't notice any uncommanded attitude adjustments in either scenario. I was also watching the gravity detector and as long as I was in a circular orbit, it didn't change. I'll check it again some more tomorrow, but as far as I can tell Gilly is completely normal.