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Newest Squadcast: Highlights, lots of new info about .24

Shuttle

By Shuttle
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winginson

winginson

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Posted

Hmmm if asteroids have no gravity staying on the ground will be 'interesting', unless we get some sort of landing gear that drills into it as an anchor. Can't wait to see military kerbals start lobbing them at each other, hopefully we get some huge explosion when they impact. I'm not too worried about my space stations though, unless the Kraken decides to punish me for using her to power my ships. I mean put a ship at Duna's orbital distance, plot and burn a kerbin intercept, and see if you can hit your space station with it without touching the controls again. I'll wait.....

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brdavis

brdavis

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He said something about the asteroids not being able to be detected unless they come from the night side… Which means to me that there is some sort of detection mechanic like telescopes as part of this.

Well that should be interesting. Not sure how that could work with the current two view modes, but I could see it being done with a special Science! instrument. Mount a space telescope on a satellite and it starts "painting" or "lighting up" everything that's at opposition (opposite the Sun in the sky). Once "painted" you know the orbit (shows in map view), but until "painted" not discovered (invisible)? Just WAGing.

If they have no surface gravity it would seem odd to be able to use a gravity tractor style, so I don't think you'll see that. Likewise unless they start adding solar sails (talk about non-Keplerian orbits!) I don't think a realistic Yarkovsky or similar method will pop up. If your engine is based on two-body Keplerian orbits, impulse-style adjustments are what I'd expect…

…capture?

…'docking' and thrust to modify asteroid orbit?

…planting an 'explosive' on it (to give it an impulsive kick)?

Hmmm if asteroids have no gravity staying on the ground will be 'interesting', unless we get some sort of landing gear that drills into it as an anchor.

I've only installed my first mods this weekend (Kethane and KAS), but it would seem to me that the KAS grappling hook (or something with similar functionality) would be ideal here.

put a ship at Duna's orbital distance, plot and burn a kerbin intercept, and see if you can hit your space station with it without touching the controls again. I'll wait.....

You're assuming asteroids spawn completely randomly in orbit… and you're right, even in the tiny Kerbal system, the chances of a collision are negligible. But… this is a game. And the inspiration for this seems to be an 'asteroid on a tremendously unlikely course is headed for Kerbin, what are the odds?!?' sort of set-up. So… the occasional non-random asteroid "stormlet" headed towards your space station might be possible. The thing I don't see how to manage yet actual impact between an asteroid and a craft. Even at 1x warp, the cloying velocities make for a likely 'teleport through' scenario as far as I can see.

It would be fun if impacts left scars of some type… if not actual craters on the Mun, at least albedo variations. I can see it now, one of the contracts is painting "Jeb Must Die" on the near side of the Mun in letters 2 km high, using only targeted asteroid impacts.

Personally, gigantnormous parts doesn't make me quite as excited. It's not because I can't use them… they will make producing really large massive boosters easier. But I guess for me (maybe because I'm a 'young' player) the challenge is minimalist - just how small a margin can I have and still make it back from Duna, for example. Meh, something for everybody here… and if I want incentive for keeping things small and under control, I guess I just have to wait until all those parts actually cost something :)

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lazarus1024

lazarus1024

Posted
Posted (edited)
It's based on the NASA asteroid capture plan. I think they're aiming for capping a < 20 meter diameter near Earth asteroid. We're not talking ginormous asteroid. This should be very doable for the average KSPer.

I do wonder if the SLS components will be the real world 8.4 meter diameter, or will they be scaled down to Kerbal size a bit. A 1:1 scale SLS system seems overkill for Kerbin's gravity / size.

I do hope one of the parts they are looking at adding is a harpoon type device, so that you can "land" on one and then lock your ship down on it. Otherwise with no gravity, it is going to be really hard to stay near one, that and no way to time warp at all, unless you do this and allow it to be "joined" for on-rails time warping.

Especially because if you can "harpoon" and asteroid or have some kind of docking anchor to attach to an asteroid, do I smell "orbital asteroid base" anyone!!!

THAT WOULD BE EPIC! Yes, I know smallish asteroids, but still, wouldn't it be damned cool to manuever something like a 20m diameter asteroid back to Kerbin orbit and then build a station on/with it? Epic upon epic.

I just hope we aren't talking oodles of free asteroids, that or a way to control the number of them that spawn in a setting. Some of us are not on terribly high end machines, so having several hundred spawn might slow things down.

That and I hope there is a resonable way to view them in map mode. Maybe a toggle to turn asteroid tracks and positioning on and off?

Edited by lazarus1024
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thomasjkenney

thomasjkenney

Posted
Posted

Contract #1314877

NESSUS: Jebediah Kerman, I presume? We have a contract in which you might be interested.

JEB: Uh...OK.

NESSUS: It concerns sensitive information. I'm afraid we must selectively edit your memories upon completion of the contract.

JEB: What was that first part again? About 'sensitive' something?

NESSUS: Never mind. Let us begin. We have located a stasis field deep within the atmosphere of Jool. We would like you to retrieve that stasis field...and open it!

JEB: Goody! I like surprises. Will I get to keep what's inside?

NESSUS: Uh...sure, provided you survive the opening of the field.

JEB: 'Survive the opening' ... wait ... WHAT?!?!

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  • 1 month later...
magnemoe

magnemoe

Posted
Posted
My guess (and not as a Mod) Would be that due to the Asteroides being so small as to not have gravity and that they can not create thrust on their own, that Squad would be putting in a extremely optimised sub routine to handle asteroids to lower the overhead, numbers would only need to be crunched when they impact with something or enter gravity wells.

Remembering that the biggest CPU drain is not 'per ship' or even 'Per part' but rather the Gestalt effect of multiple parts.

Add that the huge performance hit because of flags and similar is mostly an bug.

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magnemoe

magnemoe

Posted
Posted
Contract #1314877

NESSUS: Jebediah Kerman, I presume? We have a contract in which you might be interested.

JEB: Uh...OK.

NESSUS: It concerns sensitive information. I'm afraid we must selectively edit your memories upon completion of the contract.

JEB: What was that first part again? About 'sensitive' something?

NESSUS: Never mind. Let us begin. We have located a stasis field deep within the atmosphere of Jool. We would like you to retrieve that stasis field...and open it!

JEB: Goody! I like surprises. Will I get to keep what's inside?

NESSUS: Uh...sure, provided you survive the opening of the field.

JEB: 'Survive the opening' ... wait ... WHAT?!?!

Nessus has two heads and three legs i assume?

The object would be an space suit I assume, it would not be dangerous to open, however you don't want Jeb to have the content.

And yes the Jool mission is borderline plausible, however I doubt you would be able to catch anything without airship or propels.

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brdavis

brdavis

Posted
Posted
...And I humbly request the Gravity tractor as a method for moving the asteroid.

While I agree with you that would be nice… they've already said the asteroids aren't going to have gravity. If a spaceship isn't gravitationally attracted to them… it's hard to use the gravity tractor beam approach to alter their orbit.

But now I've starting thinking… solar sail? Yarkovsky effect? Just how complex a physics model can you have and still run at a frame rate better than 1 fps?

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HafCoJoe

HafCoJoe

Posted
Posted (edited)

Or randomly placed around the system I think.

From what I see this is how I will capture an steroid:

1. Locate one close to Kerbin and wait for it to enter its SOI

2. Burn towards it and match velocities as you both move back towards Kerbin

3. reel yourself up to the asteroid

4. use engines to change into a stable orbit

5. science!

6. blahblah land the asteroid at KSC...

Edited by Avera9eJoe
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Nepos

Nepos

Posted
Posted
Or randomly placed around the system I think.

From what I see this is how I will capture an steroid:

1. Locate one close to Kerbin and wait for it to enter its SOI

2. Burn towards it and match velocities as you both move back towards Kerbin

3. reel yourself up to the asteroid

4. use engines to change into a stable orbit

5. science!

6. blahblah land the asteroid at KSC...

didn't you forget step 7 and 8

7. ????

8. profit

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HafCoJoe

HafCoJoe

Posted
Posted
didn't you forget step 7 and 8

7. ????

8. profit

Indeed I did sorry:

1. Locate one close to Kerbin and wait for it to enter its SOI

2. Burn towards it and match velocities as you both move back towards Kerbin

3. reel yourself up to the asteroid

4. use engines to change into a stable orbit

5. science!

6. blahblah land the asteroid at KSC...

7. ????

8. profit

:D

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