Tag Archive: KWO-1

Apr 24 2015

Kerbin Satellites – 4/24/15

It’s been a few months since we last took a look at what’s in orbit around Kerbin. Here is a video of the various objects along their orbital paths, sped up 300x normal speed.

Jan 21 2015

Orbital Sunrise

Travel along with one of our satellites as its onboard camera captures the sun rising over Kerbin from 350km. The video has been sped up to 2x normal speed for a better sense of motion, despite the fact that the craft is traveling at 1.9km/s!

Music by Kevin Macleod

Nov 30 2014

Kerbin Satellites – 11/30/14

The video begins with all satellites in Kerbin orbit positioned as of 12:01:29 UTC on 11/30/14 and advances 13.5 hours at a rate of 500x normal speed. Kerbin’s rotational axis position is not proper, but all satellite positions are accurate.

LEGEND
Red – Debris/Nonoperational satellites
Orange – Operational satellites
Green – Communication satellites

We apologize for the motion blur and will have to capture data at a higher frame rate next time.

Nov 10 2014

#044: The Dawn of Interplanetary Comms

With the previously-failed launch of IP ComSat I, the second craft already under construction was used for its replacement. The purpose of these satellites is to achieve extremely elliptical polar orbits in order to spend the maximum amount of time above/below Kerbin for best possible line of sight to other planets in the Kerbol system. A dish capable of reaching as far as Eeloo is included on each satellite, as well as two smaller dishes to help connect craft traveling around the Kerbin system. In addition to placing IP ComSat in orbit, some existing hardware up in LKO was re-purposed to help create a more redundant communications network around Kerbin.

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Oct 19 2014

Kerbin Satellites – 10/19/14

A short look at the paths and motions of satellites currently in orbit around Kerbin, sped up 100x normal speed. The rotational position of Kerbin is not accurate.

Green = Communication satellite
Orange = Operating satellite
Red = Orbital debris

Download the ubox file

Sep 16 2014

#029: Munar Relay Network Completion

The KSA finally recovered enough from the atmospheric asteroid explosion just over 150km west of the KSC at the end of August to complete assembly of the third Munar comsat and launch it on its mission to complete the Munar relay network. The previous attempt had ended in failure due to wrongly-tuned boosters, but Lead Engineer Simon personally oversaw the final stages of the rocket construction to ensure booster thrust was set properly. In addition to completing the communications network around Mun, once separated the transfer stage would perform a fly-through of the impact cloud kicked up when the previous Mun comsat transfer stage, still in orbit, slams into the Munar surface. Lead Scientist Wernher Von Kerman had devised a new dust collector experiment for this purpose, although the collectors are also capable of collecting interstellar particles. Finally, there was a chance to arrange a very close (1.3km) fly-by of a passing asteroid in the hopes of photographing it prior to the launch of ComSat Mun III.

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