Curved solar panels for curved surfaces

[Helix935]

this is an idea that came to me after looking at the light up windows in LLL's part pack

the basic idea behind this is to have solar panels that are curved so that they can wrap around fuel tanks and lander cans without lowering fps from attaching dozens of singular solar panels onto miscellaneous parts.

if this is a good idea post below

[Andrew Hansen]

Sounds like a good idea. It's definitely possible. YARD aerospace has made a cargo bay with built-in solar panels, so I don't see why not. I think it's something for a mod though. Since Kerbal Space Program is in it's alpha stages more parts don't seem to be a huge priority.

[Pulstar]

If tweakables ever get added maybe it would be possible to have surface panels as a an option on fuel tanks? Treat them as one part with the tank, kill two birds with one stone so to speak. The downside could be that they're a bit heavier and more fragile as far as impact damage goes than regular fuel tanks. Also would be a good option for wings IMO.

[pizzaoverhead]

This is a good idea. Curved solar panels have been common on satellites since the early days of space communications.

Courier 1B, the world's first active repeater satellite:

[Helix935]

you know this can also extend to having maybe even procedural solar panels although they would be just normal non sun tracking panels it would still be cool right?

[boomerdog2000]

Integrating it into the tank might work, but it seems like just having a curved part might not work since there are different diameters and sizes, especially with command modules.

[Helix935]

i know but there can be just different sizes for different stuff or even implement procedural solar panels if necessary

[kiwiak]

I wonder why only HTV uses it in real life, while ATV and other capsules use normal "wing" solar arrays.

[sumghai]

Strictly speaking, none of the examples shown so far are truly "curved" solar panels - they are simply lots of tiny flat silicon-based panels affixed in varying orientations onto a curved surface.

True flexible thin-film PV technology is still very much in the experimental / prototype stages, and currently lack the resilience to withstand the rigors of launch.

[SaturnV]

There's no curved solar panel IRL, they're just clusters of small panels. If we do that in KSP, a 0.5t satellite may cost 200 parts. But we can have a (one-part) curved solar panel array

[Zamaszysty]

Speaking of different solar panel shapes:

We could use some panels designed with landers in mind like here:

http://www.kidela.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Mars-probe.jpg

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/181837main_phoenix-brief1-516.jpg

(the Phoenix lander probe)

or here:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Mars_Polar_Lander.jpg

http://thewaythetruthandthelife.net/index/2_background/2-1_cosmological/2-1-12_child-overview/mars_polar_lander.gif

(Mars Polar Lander)

There is so much more to be done in the subcject of different solar panels for various crafts that it could take a massive amount of work to implement them all ... but of course I do agree that curved solar panels are also something that could be done. The only problem with curved solar panels is that they are not that efficient at all as 99% of the surface is never angled correctly towards the sun and as a result such curved panel never gets used in 100%. Maybe some sort of unified module that is a solar panel "ring" integrated with a rircular batery into one "power module" would do the trick?

[Bacterius]

There's no curved solar panel IRL, they're just clusters of small panels. If we do that in KSP, a 0.5t satellite may cost 200 parts. But we can have a (one-part) curved solar panel array

I figure collision detection could perhaps be disabled for the OX-STAT solar panels and other flat parts. That way they will have much less impact on physics performance and we could actually afford having dozens on a satellite. I mean, who doesn't love the deep blue look of solar panels covering every square centimetre of their craft's surface? Just an idea to be perhaps expanded upon, of course, I'm sure there are situations where this does not make sense and would be undesirable...

[Helix935]

might as well have the solar panels painted on but that is a bit OP

[boomerdog2000]

might as well have the solar panels painted on but that is a bit OP

I don't know about you but surface space is at a premium on many of my landers now that I cover them in science. It might be an interesting step between extendable solar panels and 1 static one, but I think it might be fairly difficult to do. Set curves generally don't seem too friendly when you have so many things that are different shapes.

[ZedNova]

Maybe a modified procedural Fairing mod could make them Procedural too?

[Wahgineer]

Why not just arrange the static surface attach panels in a circle, then rotate them so that they aren't any gaps in between them?

[boomerdog2000]

Why not just arrange the static surface attach panels in a circle, then rotate them so that they aren't any gaps in between them?

That has the issue of high part count.

[Wahgineer]

At some point, high part count is always going to be an issue.

Besides, its only aesthetic. If you have a problem with high part count, use the solar panels that rotate to face the sun, or use rtgs. Using curved solar panels also has the issue of high part count if you wrap the entire vessel in them, which you don't need to do.

[Helix935]

again how about a paint tool that instead of using parts it changes the textures into solar panels with a high cost per meter and a increase in weight

[sumghai]

again how about a paint tool that instead of using parts it changes the textures into solar panels with a high cost per meter and a increase in weight

Materials that can be painted on a surface and magically turn into working solar panels do exist in real life, but they are currently limited to a laboratory setting, and as always, it will be many (uncertain) years before the technology could possibly be commercialized. Besides, current state-of-the-art efficiency of sunlight-to-electricity conversion via this paint-on method is barely 0.1%, in contrast to the rigid solar cells used in real spaceflight, which are up to 40% efficient.

Even if we assume Kerbals are a few years more advanced than humans, there is the problem of how to actually implement them in-game. KSP's solar panels work by checking how much of sunlight falls on a special "suncatcher" transform, dubbed raycastTransformName; for a paint-on PV surface to have even basic coverage at all angles you would need to generate a very large number of these object transforms over the painted area, all perpendicular to the curved surface.

How do you propose the software generate all these transforms dynamically with user input? How would you store the transforms and properties for each craft? How would you deal with discontinuities / edges / no-paint areas?

Edited November 21, 2013 by sumghai