Need Help with a Satellite Network

[Wulfonce]

So I'm about ready to start working on Muner contracts. I want to have a basic space station orbiting the Mun with a mobile processing lab, solar panels, and fuel reserves to service a small lunar lander which will collect the data from the surface. First things first, I need a satellite network.

Here's the part where I don't know what the hell I'm doing...

First off I'm fairly new to KSP, and have been playing on and off for a few months now. I tried KSP on normal difficulty but found it far to easy (had the entire tech tree unlocked in 3 days) so I'm running my career in Hard Mode. Money doesn't seem to be a huge issue yet. I have 290k in the bank which I'm hopping is enough to build a space station and satellite network. I would prefer to launch pieces of the station up remotely to avoid having a cluster F of pods all over the place (happened to me last time, probably just me being dumb again?). Now that I think about it, I could probably just launch the whole station up in one go? Naa, that's no fun!

So first things first. To launch remotely, I need satellites.

I would like to have 4 satellites orbiting around Kerbin, on the same orbital plane, forming a square shape. I'm thinking that should provide uninterrupted coverage? Stop me If I'm already off to a bad start... I came up with this contraption to get the job done. I figure I can get it into an oblong orbit and release a satellite every time I hit the assenting node. A solid plan? I'm not sure how to space the satellites out properly. The info is probably right there on the screen, but I'm either not seeing it, or don't understand the info.

Onto the next problem, The Satellite itself.

I'm struggling to understand signal distances and cone angles. Generally the Satellites close to Kerbin are meant to relay contact to the KSC from an outside source? Assuming I'm right about that, that means that any craft away from kerbin should have the strong cone dishes to pick up signals from KSC via the relay satellites orbiting Kerbin correct? If craft "A" has a very basic antenna with a 500km range, and craft "B" has a cone dish with a 90Mm range, Will they be connected so data can flow freely between them, or are they connected only in one direction because one has a very limited range, I'm confused.

Lastly. With the above on the table, are my satellites even going to work?

Specs:

Reflectron DP-10 (500km)

Communotron 16 (2.5Mm) (which I assume means 2500km?, oh god, I'm such a noob)

Electric Storage (410)

Drain rate (1.84 per sec)

Charge rate (4 per sec, full sun)

Satellites are also equipped with an LV-1 providing 4lbs of thrust and the smallest fuel tank I have (45 units)

Edited January 12, 2015 by Wulfonce

[Taki117]

Ok, I'm going to tackle this one question at a time.

1.) You have RemoteTech, so you are not adverse to mods, I suggest getting Kerbal Engineer Redux which will give you orbital parameters and other useful information (like dV) without adding the autopilot functionality of MechJeb. Your plan to have an elliptical orbit and release a satellite at Apoapsis and circularize is a good idea, but you are not going to be able to go out to KSO (Kerbostationary orbit) with just the Communotron.

2.) Your satellites have an omni antenna. This means that it will connnect with anything in range of that antenna, with a dish, both dishes have to be in range and pointed at each other. Cones are for pointing at planets or moons. If you point at a planet or moon a satellite will only connect with things that are within the cone, the smaller the cone angle the further out you have to be to connect to things orbiting the planetary body you are pointed at. Your satellite design is a good start, you could probably put a small dish on top so that you can take it out to KSO and then just point the dish at Kerbin. (you may need more power generation for this)

[merendel]

I would recomend puting the first array of 4 sats with omnies somewhere in the 300-400km mark for orbital hight. that should be high enough for each to have LOS to 2 others at all times (so all 4 connect if evenly spaced) and there will always be 1 in range of KSC. As they are omni's as long as they are on you dont have to point them. This array is for dealing with your low kerbin orbitals, they cover anything being launched and in LKO waiting for a transfer window so you have uninterupted connection anywhere on the planet. you could add long range dishes to these but personaly I prefer just adding additional sats for long distance coms. The reason to keep this first array low is so you can get anything into orbit with just the reflectron active as the other antina's need to be deployed to work and can be riped off in atmo depending on settings and additional mods if you have them out during launch. those sats need to be in range for the reflectron to reach them once the launched craft gets over the horizon from KSC so a sat needs to be withen 500km at all times

I'd later put up additional sats, possibly up as high as Kerbin stationary that have long range dishes. one medium range dish pointed at kerbin if your orbit hight is beyond the omni's range for conection to KSC, and another pointed at whatever celestial body you want it to cover. You can also point a third antina at the active vessel although you'll probably want a longer range dish for that. Long range sats can be deployed singaly as any signal interfearance from kerbin should be brief and infrequent if deployed high up and or slightly inclined but you can also deploy in pairs for uninterupted signals.

[Wulfonce]

Ok so I got the Kerbal Engineer Redux mod installed.

If I'm launching 4 satellites into orbit how do I space them out?

Lets say the orbit of my launcher ship is 2 hours. That would mean that each satellite would need to be on an 8 hour orbit to be spaced evenly when launching from the assenting node on each orbit of the launcher ship. How do I know how far out the launcher ships orbit needs to be to make the satellite orbits 8 hours each? I don't see how knowing this is possible without planning several maneuvers ahead along with a lot of trial and error. Unless this mod can do it, and I'm just a noob?

I would recomend puting the first array of 4 sats with omnies somewhere in the 300-400km mark for orbital hight. that should be high enough for each to have LOS to 2 others at all times (so all 4 connect if evenly spaced) and there will always be 1 in range of KSC. As they are omni's as long as they are on you dont have to point them. This array is for dealing with your low kerbin orbitals, they cover anything being launched and in LKO waiting for a transfer window so you have uninterupted connection anywhere on the planet. you could add long range dishes to these but personaly I prefer just adding additional sats for long distance coms.

This sounds like a good idea. Once there is uninterrupted connection in low Kerbin orbit, all I would need is satellites pointed at wherever I'm working.

[Jimbimbibble]

There are two ways to do this. One way is to launch a single sat to the desired altitude, then phase the others into the correct position. KER will calculate orbital period and the phase angle between satellites. With 4 sats, you want a phase angle of + or - 90 degrees between them. When you launch the 2nd sat, you can calculate the required orbital period to move it into the right spot.

The other way is to launch all 4 on a single ship and set its orbital period 25% higher than the desired orbital period and circularize one at a time. This is less efficient but potentially easier to fly.

[Taki117]

The other way is to launch all 4 on a single ship and set its orbital period 25% higher than the desired orbital period and circularize one at a time. This is less efficient but potentially easier to fly.

This right here. Ensure your apoapsis is at the appropriate altitude, there should be less than 2500Km between sats to ensure connection, then make sure your periapsis is outside the atmosphere and ensure that your orbital period is 1/4th that of your target orbital period (so for a 4hr orbit you will want your elliptical orbit of 1hr) then release your sat and circularize. To ensure they don't drift make sure that the Orbital Periods are the same, not necessarily the apsis.

[Stone Blue]

Take a look at this:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/90113-WEB-Visual-RemoteTech-Planner-for-MOD-RemoteTech2

While there are different ways to do this, and you will get a ton of different answers, for me, I tried putting 3 sats in KSO, all at once on one launcher...After multiple failed attempts to get everything to my satisfaction, i found it quicker and easier for my abilities, to just shoot each of the three sats into KSO, one at a time, using three separate launches...Boom!...Done!

I was using a DP-10, a Comm 32, and 5 KR-7's on each sat....(Seems now it was overkill...) ... The reasoning on the KR-7s was: (Only for the sat above KSC), 1 to target KSC, 1 to target the sat to the left, 1 to target the sat to the right, 1 to target Active Vessel, and 1 spare for future needs... For the two sats NOT above KSC, 1 of the extras either makes the 2nd spare, or, since i use KerbinSide Tracking Stations, I'll have it target either a specific station, or Kerbin, to pick them all up...

Then for outside KSO coverage, I put two sats into highly elliptical polar orbits, with periods set as close to 180° apart as I can, with the same antennas as the KSO constellation, but with whatever larger dish I need for further out.

These 5 sats are all I seem to need for full coverage...(At least from the Kerbin inner SOI side of things)

Edited January 12, 2015 by Stone Blue

[merendel]

These 6 sats are all I seem to need for full coverage...(At least from the Kerbin inner SOI side of things)

My approach was 4 equatorial at 350km equiped just with the baseline omnis to cover LKO. Later a pair were launched into a polar orbit equiped with an omni(to connect to the LKO sats), a DTS-m1 (first foldout stock com) pointed at active craft, wide angle with enough range to cover kerbin SOI and connect to relays around mun/minmus if active vessle is there without the cone missing a sat. Finally the pair will have the longest range antina I have avalible pointed at active vessle to cover interplanetary missions. Normaly the polar sats get placed as soon as I'm starting interplanetary with the best tech I have and get replaced once I unlock the longest range coms. still 6 sats all thats required and can do it in 2 launches as it takes little more than get up to desired orbit and enter a simple phasing orbit circularizing 1 sat per orbit. only takes a few minutes to deploy.

[Wulfonce]

Take a look at this:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/90113-WEB-Visual-RemoteTech-Planner-for-MOD-RemoteTech2

)

Thanks for that link, It helped alot!

So I got the launcher into 3/4s the orbit time of what I wanted the satellites to be at ignoring orbital height. Once I hit the assenting node I broke off a satellite and immediately maneuvered its desenting node to 1000km. Once I orbited half way around I did the same on the other end. I did the same for satellites 2, 3 and 4 every 3rd orbit. Sometimes I would have no contact with KSC so I had to wait another set of 3 orbits. Every third orbit would end up being 90 degrees (or close to it) away from the first satellite.

The end result:

-Every Satellite is 90 degrees (+/- 5 degrees) from the next.

-All orbit times are +/- 0.2 sec from each other

-All satellites are orbiting at 1000km +/- 200m

It's not perfect, but it's way closer then I thought I'd get. Thanks for the help everyone.

Edited January 12, 2015 by Wulfonce

[Stone Blue]

^^ Very nice... :thumbsup: