Spacecraft navigation lights

[TeeGee]

Hi everyone,

Do you think that it is logical for spacecraft to have navigational lights? Given the speed they travel, the weight restrictions etc. is it a reasonable design decision to have them sport lights on the fuselage for other spacecraft to spot?

What is your opinion?

[Red Iron Crown]

Yes, very reasonable. Rendezvous in space is much safer if the two ships can see each other regardless of lighting conditions, and nav lights indicate the orientation of the ship which can be critical information.

[the_bT]

According to this the Cygnus spacecraft has navigation lights. (Red on the left, green on the right, 2 white lights on top and one yellow light an the bottom.)

I've begun to put something similar on my crafts, at least sometimes

[Nibb31]

For CRS-3, Dragon V1 had red and green port/starboard lights as well as a sequential strobe light:

The white strobe flashes in an irregular/random sequence so as not to confuse the flashing with a rotation.

[cpast]

For *all* spacecraft, or just for the ones that are intended to engage in a rendezvous and/or docking (like the supply transfer vehicles people have posted about)?

[Kryten]

For *all* spacecraft, or just for the ones that are intended to engage in a rendezvous and/or docking (like the supply transfer vehicles people have posted about)?

If a spacecraft isn't intended to rendezvous, in all likelihood it will never go close enough to another spacecraft for anything like this to be visible; there'd be no point.

[TeeGee]

Ok then, navigation lights are reasonable!

Thanks everyone!

[vger]

A flashing beacon visible from 100km?

Alright, KSP totally needs that.

[Red Iron Crown]

I'd be happy if KSP's lights had lenses that matched the color of the light they emit, hard to make sensible running lights without that.