Kessler chaos - space debris clouds [0.23.5] [WIP] [Plugin]

[Unit327]

A mod that adds more deadly space debris to Kerbal Space Program.

download

source code

How it works

Adds random debris cloud encounters when flying. The likelyhood of

encountering a debris cloud depends on:

• how much "normal" debris you have floating around the sphere of
  influence (up to a max of 250)
  
• your altitude (more the lower you are, but none below
  atmosphere/terrain)
  
• how much time has elapsed since the last debris cloud encounter
  

Debris clouds are also more intense depending on the amount of

"normal" debris in the SOI. This should give you an incentive to keep space

clean (or not depending on your proclivities).

Upcoming feature wishlist

• Real trajectories for debris clouds rather than random encounters
  
• Modeled chain reactions for a proper Kessler Syndrome
  
• Improved graphical effects
  
• Sound effects for the small impacts that don't create explosions
  
• Allow debris clouds to affect "on rails" vessles
  
• Debris detector vessel parts to provide alarms and early warnings
  
• Debris mitigation vessel parts such as laser brooms and "deflector dishes"
  

Changelog

v0.6:
    Landed, splashed down and sub-orbital debris no longer counts

v0.4:
    Debris cloud forecast shown to user
    GUI button to force debris cloud encounter
    Adjustable settings per savegame
    Better collisions (less misses)
    Toolbar integration
    Time warp blocked during debris cloud encounters
    Allowed mod to work with mods that alter planet dimensions
    Uses game simulation time instead of wall clock time

v0.2:
    First release

Licences

Kessler Chaos - GNU General Public License v3

KSP Plugin Framework courtesy of TriggerAu - MIT License

ToolbarWrapper copyright 2013-2014 Maik Schreiber - BSD 2-Clause License

Known Issues

see github

Edited May 15, 2014 by Unit327
v0.6 release

[wasmic]

Gravity much? By the way, do you have any screenies? How does it look?

[Unit327]

I've added a video to the first post.

[aeTIos]

Please don't make them affect on rails vessels, at least not without prior warning like "Warning: Craft Turdblabla is about to hit a debris cloud. Switch to it and change its trajectory now!" or so.

EDIT: Could you somehow make it use actual parts? That'd be really cool

[theSpeare]

Will this have some sort of mechanism on cleaning up orbit space?

[Unit327]

Please don't make them affect on rails vessels, at least not without prior warning like "Warning: Craft Turdblabla is about to hit a debris cloud. Switch to it and change its trajectory now!" or so.

You could always just not litter in the first place! Regardless the on rails stuff isn't going to happen very soon.

Could you somehow make it use actual parts? That'd be really cool

I suppose I could throw a few rcs thrusters and other small parts in there.

Will this have some sort of mechanism on cleaning up orbit space?

Everything in the mod currently depends on the amount of normal ksp debris floating around in the current sphere of influence. Clean that up (e.g. using kerbal attachment system hooks) and it will all disappear. I'm also thinking about laser brooms but that is probably a long way off.

[kiwiak]

Please don't make them affect on rails vessels, at least not without prior warning like "Warning: Craft Turdblabla is about to hit a debris cloud. Switch to it and change its trajectory now!" or so.

EDIT: Could you somehow make it use actual parts? That'd be really cool

Good lack mooving iss-size station anywhere in ksp!

It woudl wobble to death instantly.

[skykooler]

This is awesome!

[Unit327]

New version and new video released. More details in first post.

If someone could try it on windows and let me know that it works, that would be awesome.

[kiwiak]

Why didnt you added gravity soundtrack as background music?

[CalculusWarrior]

This looks very interesting! I'm sure it will be super annoying at times, but it shall add a more realistic sense of danger to orbital debris, and provide incentive for keeping LEO clear of debris.

[kiwiak]

This only affects focused vessel, right?

[Mekan1k]

Does this mod work with planet factory, and does it work around, say, Sentar? I want to simulate flying through the ring, and that would require fine debris...

[Unit327]

Does this mod work with planet factory, and does it work around, say, Sentar? I want to simulate flying through the ring, and that would require fine debris...

It should work fine with planetfactory and other mods as nothing is hardcoded. However the debris particles in this mod won't simulate a ring system very well, as they only ever fly past you at high speed. You can never rendezvous with the debris. This let's me cheat and make the debris particles magically appear and disappear so there only ever needs to be around 500 of them existing at once. If I put in enough particles to do a ring system justice, your CPU would probably die.

This only affects focused vessel, right?

Yep. Well, that and anything else within the ~2km physics enabled zone surrounding it.

[CaptainKipard]

I've just started a hard mode career, so this is perfect, but I'll wait until you add trajectories and chain reactions.

[kiwiak]

I've just started a hard mode career, so this is perfect, but I'll wait until you add trajectories and chain reactions.

Same here, this might be nice addition adding complexity to game like for example remotetech. FInally a reason to clean up instead just for roleplay pourposes. But right now it just pretty random, so i will wait for more functionaliy.

And of course some early warning system woudl be ok. Maybe even high in tech tree some autopilot that moves vessel away to avoid debris? Just orbit change off rails, without running physics calculations.

By the way, shoudlnt there be less debris in low kerbin orbit? Thats how it works on earth orbit, leo debris is naturally "cleaned" due to orbital decay by residual atmosphere. Well yeah, we dont have this in ksp, but it coudl be included in your mod (no actual orbital decay of debris, just in chance calculations).

Also, chance of hit shoudl be calculated in respect to things like inclintation, if most debris is on equtorial orbit, ships on inclined orbit shoudl have less chance to be hit.

I dont know if you plan to discern debris by its energy/damage it deals, but for example goig retrograde while most debris is prograde shoudl also be more dangerous, right?

well thats it for now for my ideas

[Unit327]

By the way, shoudlnt there be less debris in low kerbin orbit?

Thanks for the feedback. There's a few different elements to space debris and I should probably do some proper research (or just ask someone who's already done it). Obviously proper tracking based on jettisoned parts would be great but who knows if I'll ever get around to doing it; the more people ask, the more interest in the mod, the greater the chance of me doing it

For the moment though, this was my thinking:

• At too low an altitude the atmosphere/terrain will clean up the debris. In ksp this happens at ~70km for kerbin, and it was easy to pull those values out of the API and set the limit at that.
  
• Every launch goes through low orbit, not all launches go through a high orbit. The higher traffic density probably means more debris gets dumped there.
  
• The further out you go from low orbit, the bigger space is. The circumference of a circular geostationary orbit is much larger than the circumference of a low orbit. The bigger the space is, the more spread out stuff is, the less likely there is to be a collision.
  
• Stuff moves faster at periapse. A fast moving debris cloud is more likely to catch you than a slow one, because it sweeps out more area per second (something tells me this one is fishy, but I can't quite put my finger on it).
  

[Starwaster]

Maybe it's just my imagination but I'd swear that Kerbal looked just like Sandra Bullock.

Except green.

[curiousepic]

"...simulations of the long-term evolution of the space debris environment indicate that within a few decades, generated collision fragments will start to dominate, at least in orbits around 800- to 1400 km altitude. " - ESA FAQ

So maybe up to ~90km is pretty clear, with a peak at 200 and tapering off semi-exponentially at ~1000?

Edited April 8, 2014 by curiousepic

[Unit327]

Thanks, I'll take a peak, come up with a better function and update the mod.

I know people want real tracking of debris clouds, but I'm not sure that will be possible in the end. It requires on-rails collision detection between the clouds and the ship. Such collision detection in stock ksp fails if you're running at high timewarps; you can be on a collision course with jool and go straight through the planet unharmed, without the auto-timewarp slowdown kicking in. If it misses encounters with something the size of jool, a debris cloud is going to be even worse.

[sidfu]

works fine on windows. u just need to adjust the direction they come from. i hit the start button for it and they come from sun direction which kinda makes no sense. also we realy need a early waring system. it tell u what directioon its comeing from. also might want to add a part that is hardened like a heat sheild for protection u can turn intol the cloud.

also another thing just thought of have like a hardening for parts mostly main parts like pods and parts that would be manned. basicaly each part would be harder so can take more hits.

and for options we should have a option to turn if off for certain ship types. for example due to way joints are stations are had to move safetly in ksp so u could turn off chance of debris when your control a station

[Helix935]

hmm i feel that this should be tracked like asteroids so that we would know whether we will wander into them. Have them generated at random like asteroids.

[curiousepic]

I'd love to see this fleshed out to include micro-meteoroid strikes, and, if we get tracking, meteor showers/clusters. There was a micro-meteoroid mod, but it's dead now. It had a great "tin can" sound effect and sparks.

[skykooler]

works fine on windows. u just need to adjust the direction they come from. i hit the start button for it and they come from sun direction which kinda makes no sense. also we realy need a early waring system. it tell u what directioon its comeing from. also might want to add a part that is hardened like a heat sheild for protection u can turn intol the cloud.

also another thing just thought of have like a hardening for parts mostly main parts like pods and parts that would be manned. basicaly each part would be harder so can take more hits.

and for options we should have a option to turn if off for certain ship types. for example due to way joints are stations are had to move safetly in ksp so u could turn off chance of debris when your control a station

If debris isn't in a circular orbit, it could approach you from any direction. Coming from towards the sun is not a problem.

[Pockrtplanesairways]

Just the serene music playing in the background while everything is being demolished.