The Mo-Henge Project: Kerbals Building Megalithic Monuments

[Geschosskopf]

The Extravagant Projects Institute of Kerbals Following Abolutely Incorrect Logic (EPIKFAIL), one of the most prestigeous scientific societies on Kerbin, decided it would be a great idea to build a megalithic solar observatory on Moho. In general, the aims of the project were to see if it was possible to build such a thing at all and get some useful functionality out of it. After all, if they could derive important information from such a Stone Age thing, it might help bootstrap Kerbal scientific progress after another supernova inevitably wipes the slate clean again. Moho was chosen as the test site because 1) it's got a very good view of Kerbol, 2) it has no atmosphere to screw up observations, 3) it's eccentric and inclined orbit might make for interesting observations, and 4) it's day being a significant fraction of its year makes Kerbol move very slowly across its sky, aiding accurate observations.

So EPIKFAIL funded a huge monstrosity of a ship, capable of carrying a large construction crew of 7 Kerbals and scads of building material, and sent it off to Moho. They decided an equaltorial location would be best to start with, to eliminate some of the variables associated with latitude, and originally wanted to go for the highest ground they could find. However, all the high ground was too rough--they needed a fairly large flat area. So in the end there was nothing for it but to land in an equatorial crater, essentially leaving the choice of longitude up to chance. The site eventually selected was 0^ N 55^ W.

MH-1-00 Ship and Site by TheBullethead, on Flickr

Landing was no problem and soon the crew emerged and began unloading construction material. Heaving the heavy crates of stones around was fairly easy in Moho's low gravity.

MH-1-01 Initial Materials by TheBullethead, on Flickr

And with this, construction began. First, they placed a central stone from which all lines of sight for the rest of the monument would be measured. And soon it was time to take their 1st observation as Kerbol set on the evening of their 1st day on Moho.

MH-1-02 First Rocks by TheBullethead, on Flickr

And about 19 (24-hour) days later, Kerbol duly rose on the opposite side of the crater and another stone was placed to mark that spot.

MH-1-03 Sighting 1st Dawn by TheBullethead, on Flickr

The leisurely pace of Kerbol across the sky meant the project took a long time. But gradually the menhirs rose and began to form a pattern. This resulted in the decision to encode the order of dawns and sunsets by the shape and position of the menhirs. The monument would be built with menhirs in a series of N-S rows working inwards toward the central stone. Each row would have 3 menhirs in it, and each menhir would be 1, 2 or 3 units long to indicate whether it was the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in its row. Here, the 1st row of 3 menhirs has been completed at both ends of the monument, with the dawn (eastern) end in the foreground.

MH-1-04 First Triple Cycle Complete by TheBullethead, on Flickr

Work then started on the 2nd row of menhirs.

MH-1-05 Start of 2nd Cycle by TheBullethead, on Flickr

During the long days and nights between observations, the crew explored their surroundings. They soon discoverd a ley line running just north of the slowly growing monument and essentially parallel with its main axis. This caused much discussion back at EPIKFAIL's HQ. Had they sited the monument where they did because they'd been attracted subconsciously by the presence of the ley line, or had the mystical power of their construction caused the creation of the ley line?

MH-1-07 Ley Line by TheBullethead, on Flickr

Construction continued at the site meanwhile. The surveying methods were simple in the extreme. The forekerbal stood at the central stone and sited over the top of it, yelling orders to whichever workkerbal was holding the next stone to move left or right as required to line up with the limb of Kerbol.

MH-1-08 Continued Construction by TheBullethead, on Flickr

Eventually, about 2/3 through their 1st year on Moho, during construction of the 3rd row of menhirs, the crew started getting repeats of dawns and sunsets along the same lines of sight.

MH-1-09 Repeats Starting by TheBullethead, on Flickr

By the time the 3rd row of menhirs was complete, it was becoming apparent that the point where Kerbol crossed the horizon wobbled back and forth, sometimes fairly smoothly and predictably, sometimes with large jerks and jumps, but always staying within certain limits to the north and south of the equator. This provided valuable data on Moho's orbital parameters, such as its inclination and eccentricity. It also helped establish Moho's position in its orbit at any given time, relative to its ascending and descending nodes.

Other useful observations were that the relative amounts of daylight and darkness varied over time, instead of being the constant number listed in the almagest. This again helped calculate Moho's eccentricity and it's position relative to its LAN. Also, it was noted that most of the seasonal variation in Kerbol's position in the sky happened during its transit, so that it wobbled in an S-like pattern across the Sacred Strut of background stars along the ecliptic. And all the while, Kerbol's position relative to various background constellations changed noticeably during the course of a Moho day. Using this data, the boffins at EPIKFAIL were able to develop a solar calendar for Moho.

In the pic below, you can use the menhir code to see how the position of sunset has changed so far during the mission. The 1st observation was the 1-high stone in the row closest to the camera. From there, went to the 2-high then 3-high in that row, then 1-3 in the middle row, and finally 1-3 in the back row. In the left background, you can see the growing pile of empty containers, too.

MH-1-10 Status Update by TheBullethead, on Flickr

After building 5 complete menhir rows on both ends of the monument, which took the 1st 1/3 of the 2nd year on Moho, EPIKFAIL decided no new data was being obtained because all menhirs were falling in line with existing ones. But there was 1 more thing to do. Now that no further sightings were necessary, it was decided to build the central menhir up to a height of 4 stones, so that it could serve as the gnomon of a sundial. And by comparing the length of its shadow to that of the lander, both objects of known height, EPIKFAIL was able to derive the circumpherence of Moho and also its distance from Kerbol.

MH-1-12 Finishing the Central Menhir by TheBullethead, on Flickr

This marked the end of construction and the last of the empty containers were added to the pile. There were still some full containers on the lander but they would be saved for a future project.

MH-1-13 Construction Debris by TheBullethead, on Flickr

So then the crew waited another 9 or so 24-hour days until Kerbol was at its zenith so they could admire their work.

MH-1-14 Overhead View by TheBullethead, on Flickr

While the crew was mostly partying, however, the boffins of EPIKFAIL were analyzing the sight lines of the monument. They immediately noticed that the sunrises all fell on 5 lines of sight whereas there were only 4 lines of sunsets, and they didn't entirely line up with each other. However, the 3rd sunset observed seemed to be on a line all by itself. Was this bad data, an incorrectly placed Menhir? Or was good data, indicating some rare alignment of Moho and Kerbol, the recurrence of which could be used as the basis of a long-term calendar? This would require further observation to determine.

MH-1-15 Sight Lines by TheBullethead, on Flickr

In any case, the crew was happy to be going home finally. Maybe it was from living so long next to the ley line, maybe it was from working for so long on this project, but a type of mysticism had overtaken the crew. The forekerbal now styled himself the High Priest and climbed atop the central menhir while the rest of the crew danced around below.

MH-1-16 Dedication Ceremony by TheBullethead, on Flickr

Before they left, the crew took some close-ups of their work. Here is the Sunset Group of menhirs with west in the upper left.

MH-1-17 Sunset Group by TheBullethead, on Flickr

And here's the Sunrise Group with east to the upper left.

MH-1-18 Dawn Group by TheBullethead, on Flickr

Then they all got back in the ship and left. All except for Fredke, now known as the Keeper of Mo-Henge 1. What's the point of having an observatory if you don't have an astronomer on staff? Besides, EPIKFAIL needed somebody to verify the accuracy or not of the placement of Sunset Menhir 1:3 as noted above, however long that takes. Fredke was, however, happy to stay behind, being obsessed by the mystal power of the monument.

MH-1-19 Fredke the Keeper by TheBullethead, on Flickr

This concludes the tale of Mo-Henge 1. EPIKFAIL was happy with the results although the rest of Kerbalkind doesn't seem to care. But come the next supernova, when being able to derive knowledge of the solar system from piles of rock will be necessary to get back into space, they might change their opinion.

EPIKFAIL, however, was a bit disappointed with the aesthetics of Mo-Henge 1. Being on the equator, it's necessarily going to be a bit linear. But having established this as a baseline, EPIKFAIL is even now contemplating building Mo-Hinge 2 at a higher latitude, perhaps even above the arctic circle. That might make for a more interesting-looking monument.

Edited October 13, 2014 by Geschosskopf
typos

[Cydonian Monk]

Very cool! And quite possibly the first solar calander built on Moho?? How do you account for the lack of a sunset (or rather just a very long day) for such constructions at sites above the arctic?

I'm guessing one built at the exact poles would be rather useless. (Or simple - just chuck a stone in the hole and be done.)

Edited October 13, 2014 by Cydonian Monk

[Geschosskopf]

Very cool! And quite possibly the first solar calander built on Moho??

I dunno. Were there ever any native Mohobals? But surely in the history of KPS, somebody else has done something like this.

How do you account for the lack of a sunset for such constructions at sites above the arctic?

Well, Moho (liike all KSP planets) has zero axial tilt so the arctic circle (and all seasons) are solely the result of inclination. Moho's inclination is 7^ so the arctic circle is all the way up at 83^ N. 7^ is 3.9% of 180^, so only that much of the year will the sun not set, and a like amount that it won't rise. So for the other 92% of the year, an observatory at 93^ N would see sunrises and sunsets and they'd occur over a very wide arc of the horizon. And given that Moho's year is so short, neither the midnight sun nor the noontime night will last very long anyway. Given how long Moho's days are anyway, they might not even be noticeable.

Anyway, it should make for a more interesting arrangement of menhirs. Now it's just a matter of getting a crew together for the mission .

[Operation Captain Viridian]

On 10/13/2014 at 3:55 PM, Geschosskopf said:

I dunno. Were there ever any native Mohobals? But surely in the history of KPS, somebody else has done something like this.

Well, Moho (liike all KSP planets) has zero axial tilt so the arctic circle (and all seasons) are solely the result of inclination. Moho's inclination is 7^ so the arctic circle is all the way up at 83^ N. 7^ is 3.9% of 180^, so only that much of the year will the sun not set, and a like amount that it won't rise. So for the other 92% of the year, an observatory at 93^ N would see sunrises and sunsets and they'd occur over a very wide arc of the horizon. And given that Moho's year is so short, neither the midnight sun nor the noontime night will last very long anyway. Given how long Moho's days are anyway, they might not even be noticeable.

Anyway, it should make for a more interesting arrangement of menhirs. Now it's just a matter of getting a crew together for the mission .

Heres are two tips: 1 post a link to the second project on this page, and 2 JUST DO IT !!!!!!!!!!!! (no procrastination allowed!)

Edited February 16, 2016 by Operation Captain Viridian
Grammer

[Geschosskopf]

54 minutes ago, Operation Captain Viridian said:

Heres are two tips: 1 post a link to the second project on this page, and 2 JUST DO IT !!!!!!!!!!!! (no procrastination allowed!)

Wow, a blast from the past, 1.5 Earth years ago.  I'd pretty much forgotten this (and poor Fredke, although all the many supernovae since then have certainly made that moot).  I suppose I might do something similar once 1.1 comes out.

Anyway, welcome to the forums.  But note that the mods usually don't like it when folks dredge up long-dead threads like this.