The SPSCN Project

[4KidsOneCamera]

I honestly can’t remember the last time I made a post about SFS, so here we go with something new! Yesterday I had an idea for a new project, and today I got to carry out the initial phase for it. The Single Planetary Space Communication Network (SPSCN) is an array of eight satellites designed to be positioned around any solar system body in order to provide stable connection to any craft within its SOI.

The SPSCN takes advantage of a little known quirk in the games orbital mechanics so that once each satellite reaches its target position, it’ll hold that position indefinitely without the need for station keeping or maintenance. Essentially, in SFS, if a craft reaches a velocity >1m/s, the game stops calculating that crafts motion. That craft becomes locked at that one point until you increase its velocity again. Exiting to the main menu, restarting the game, or reloading quick saves will not cause the craft to move.

This is why the SPSCN is targeted at the very edge of a planets SOI, as this makes it very easy to cancel out a crafts velocity to less than 1m/s. You could do it at lower altitudes, but the ΔV requirements to do so get pretty messy the lower you go.

The satellites themselves are pretty basic, with only about three or four slightly edited parts. They are stacked in a cluster of 8, then released on a transfer orbit up out to the edge of Earths SOI. I’ll leave you with the images of todays work below:

 

[Astatium_209]

I honestly can’t remember the last time I made a post about SFS, so here we go with something new! Yesterday I had an idea for a new project, and today I got to carry out the initial phase for it. The Single Planetary Space Communication Network (SPSCN) is an array of eight satellites designed to be positioned around any solar system body in order to provide stable connection to any craft within its SOI.
View attachment 77740

The SPSCN takes advantage of a little known quirk in the games orbital mechanics so that once each satellite reaches its target position, it’ll hold that position indefinitely without the need for station keeping or maintenance. Essentially, in SFS, if a craft reaches a velocity >1m/s, the game stops calculating that crafts motion. That craft becomes locked at that one point until you increase its velocity again. Exiting to the main menu, restarting the game, or reloading quick saves will not cause the craft to move.

This is why the SPSCN is targeted at the very edge of a planets SOI, as this makes it very easy to cancel out a crafts velocity to less than 1m/s. You could do it at lower altitudes, but the ΔV requirements to do so get pretty messy the lower you go.

The satellites themselves are pretty basic, with only about three or four slightly edited parts. They are stacked in a cluster of 8, then released on a transfer orbit up out to the edge of Earths SOI. I’ll leave you with the images of todays work below:
View attachment 77739 View attachment 77733 View attachment 77734 View attachment 77737 View attachment 77736 View attachment 77738 View attachment 77740

Hey, those are some smart exploitations!

 

[4KidsOneCamera]

Hey, those are some smart exploitations!

Thanks! Figured this’d be a creative use case for it.

 

[Altaïr]

Oh nice! At first I thought you built a constellation using the properties of resonant orbits (that's what I would have done), I didn't expect that.

 

[Mars Pathfinder]

I honestly can’t remember the last time I made a post about SFS, so here we go with something new! Yesterday I had an idea for a new project, and today I got to carry out the initial phase for it. The Single Planetary Space Communication Network (SPSCN) is an array of eight satellites designed to be positioned around any solar system body in order to provide stable connection to any craft within its SOI.
View attachment 77740

The SPSCN takes advantage of a little known quirk in the games orbital mechanics so that once each satellite reaches its target position, it’ll hold that position indefinitely without the need for station keeping or maintenance. Essentially, in SFS, if a craft reaches a velocity >1m/s, the game stops calculating that crafts motion. That craft becomes locked at that one point until you increase its velocity again. Exiting to the main menu, restarting the game, or reloading quick saves will not cause the craft to move.

This is why the SPSCN is targeted at the very edge of a planets SOI, as this makes it very easy to cancel out a crafts velocity to less than 1m/s. You could do it at lower altitudes, but the ΔV requirements to do so get pretty messy the lower you go.

The satellites themselves are pretty basic, with only about three or four slightly edited parts. They are stacked in a cluster of 8, then released on a transfer orbit up out to the edge of Earths SOI. I’ll leave you with the images of todays work below:
View attachment 77739 View attachment 77733 View attachment 77734 View attachment 77737 View attachment 77736 View attachment 77738 View attachment 77740

Haven't heard that thing could work! Guess it's a great starting point of communication around the world and off the world!

 

[4KidsOneCamera]

Oh nice! At first I thought you built a constellation using the properties of resonant orbits (that's what I would have done), I didn't expect that.

I’d be interested in seeing this! Always neat to see different orbital types in the game.

 

[4KidsOneCamera]

New system is now online around the moon! I’m a fan of that UI opacity slider. Makes for some clean screenshots.

 

[Mars Pathfinder]

Goin to expand it to other places?

 

[4KidsOneCamera]

Goin to expand it to other places?

Yeah, I’ll probably send them all over.

 

[Altaïr]

I’d be interested in seeing this! Always neat to see different orbital types in the game.

I finally did it, let me show you.

First I'll send a convoy of 8 satellites, the same as you did:


My target is a 500×500 kilometers orbit (to get things a little faster). So I first put the convoy on a 500×361.2 km orbit:


Why this one? Because on this trajectory, by the time the convoy orbits 8 times, an object on the target orbit would orbit exactly 7 times. This is what is called a resonant orbit. So I'll free one satellite each time I reach the apoapsis and make it circularize. That way, each satellite will be separated from his predecessor by 1/8th of turn.

This is how it happens:


And finally:


The constellation is in place. Once it's done, it's better to deorbit the convoy rocket because it's still synchronized: it will encounter again one of the satellites each time it reaches the apoapsis, with a risk of collision. Indeed:

They flew only a few meters away from eachother

Better to deorbit this thing once it's done.

Finally, I'm done with my exploit-free constellation

 

[4KidsOneCamera]

I finally did it, let me show you.

First I'll send a convoy of 8 satellites, the same as you did:
View attachment 78161 View attachment 78162

My target is a 500×500 kilometers orbit (to get things a little faster). So I first put the convoy on a 500×361.2 km orbit:
View attachment 78163

Why this one? Because on this trajectory, by the time the convoy orbits 8 times, an object on the target orbit would orbit exactly 7 times. This is what is called a resonant orbit. So I'll free one satellite each time I reach the apoapsis and make it circularize. That way, each satellite will be separated from his predecessor by 1/8th of turn.

This is how it happens:
View attachment 78164 View attachment 78165

And finally:
View attachment 78166

The constellation is in place. Once it's done, it's better to deorbit the convoy rocket because it's still synchronized: it will encounter again one of the satellites each time it reaches the apoapsis, with a risk of collision. Indeed:
View attachment 78167 View attachment 78168 View attachment 78169
They flew only a few meters away from eachother

Better to deorbit this thing once it's done.

Finally, I'm done with my exploit-free constellation
View attachment 78170

Dang, so simple, yet very effective! I wouldn’t have thought to do it this way! I’ll have to give it a go.

 

[Altaïr]

Dang, so simple, yet very effective! I wouldn’t have thought to do it this way! I’ll have to give it a go.

Glad you appreciate

If you want to try it you will need a formula to calculate a resonant orbit:

ratio^(2/3) = sma_convoy / sma_target

"ratio" is the resonance ratio suited. In general, you'll want it equal to (n-1)/n or (n+1)/n, where n is the number of satellites. In this case I used 7/8. That's the most natural, but other possibilities exist of course. 5/8 would also work for example. Just make sure you use an irreducible fraction. For example if you used 6/8, as this reduces to 3/4, you would only reach 4 of the 8 suited positions.

"sma" is the semi-major-axis: (periapsis + apoapsis)/2. It has to be measured from the center of the planet however, so you have to take into account the planet radius.

In my case, my target orbit is 500×500 km. But because the Earth's radius is 315 km, that's 815×815 km. 815 km is my target sma.

(7/8)^(2/3) × 815 = 745.6 km, so that's my convoy sma.

The great-axis is 1491.2 km, and because I want my apoapsis to be 815 km, the periapsis has to be 1491.2 - 815 = 676.2 km. That's from the center of Earth. By substracting the Earth radius (315 km), I get 361.2 km for the periapsis ingame.

 

[Pink]

Very nice, I'll have to remember that one!